Bring Me Out of Darkness
by triquetraperson
Summary: Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy are two of the top Aurors in the country. An accident leaves Hermione blind and she's forced to stay with Draco till a cure is found. This only attracts unwanted attention... DMHG
1. Prologue

**Ok, well, this is just an idea I've had in my head for the longest time. It has a slow sort of start but it'll get better, I promise. I have no idea when I'll update it next but it'll be within the next two weeks, probably. It's probably also an overused plot line but hey, why not do it? So I'd really appreciate any feedback from those of you who are reading it. Thanks!**

**Disclaimer- I do not own Harry Potter or any of its characters. They are all owned by J. K. Rowling but I do own those characters which you don't recognize.**

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**Hermione Granger was a twenty four year old witch. She was a twenty four year old witch and happened to be one of the top Aurors in Britain. They had no problem accepting her after seeing the scores that she received on her N.E.W.T.S. There was also the added bonus that she was a friend of Harry Potter, also an Auror, who was currently out of the country on his honeymoon with his wife, formerly known as Ginny Weasley. 

Hermione also happened to be best friends with Ron Weasley who was coincidentally also an Auror. Ron, his father, and his oldest brother, Bill were very involved in the ministry. They had all received a countless number of awards from the Minister. Ron was currently out of the country visiting his brother Charlie in Romania.

She was, a person would say, living a life of luxury. She had everything that she wanted. There was nothing more that she could ask for.

There was one slight problem however. Being an Auror required you to workwith partners. Hermione was partnered with none other than Draco Malfoy. During the war, Draco had betrayed Voldemort and come to the Order hoping that they would give him a second chance. Much to his luck, that was exactly what he got. He shunned the Dark Side and ended up being one of the heroes of the war along with Ron, Harry, and Hermione. The war had changed him a lot though. Unlike Harry and Ron, who had become much more cheerful, he had become cold towards everyone. People feared him even though there really was no reason to.

This arrangement displeased Hermione a great deal but being the mature witch that she was, she reminded herself that without him, they might have not won the war.

This particular morning, she went to work with a feeling of dread in the pit of her stomach. Without Ron and Harry there, the Auror department was going to be very noisy that day.

As soon as she stepped through the fireplace at the entrance of the Ministry of Magic, she was greeted by a mousy brown haired witch with thick rimmed glasses.

"Good morning, Miss, Granger," she stammered out handing Hermione a cup of coffee.

"Good morning, Evy." Hermione took a sip of her coffee as she started walking and said, "As usual, this is delicious."

Evy followed behind Hermione and said, "Thank you...err, you won't mind if I go and get another cup, will you?"

Hermione frowned at Evy as she sipped her coffee. "Evy, you don't need to ask me to get yourself another coffee."

Evy turned slightly pink and said, "Oh no, Miss Granger, it's not for me. It's for your partner, Mr. Malfoy."

Hermione nearly spit her coffee out as she heard what Evy had said. "Malfoy asked you to get him coffee?" Evy nodded as she looking at Hermione with a distressed look on her face. Hermione merely nodded and said, "You might as well get it for him, but if it happens again, please come and tell me."

Evy smiled weakly at Hermione and rushed off to get another cup of coffee. Hermione sipped the rest of her coffee with a feeling of distaste lingering in her mouth. It had been less than a day since Harry and Ron left and Malfoy was already beginning to bug her. Why he needed Evy out of all people to get him his coffee, she didn't know.

Hermione walked into her cubicle and swung her bag off her shoulder and dropped it on the ground. Then straightening her robes, she walked out of her cubicle and into the cubicle that was straight across from hers. Draco Malfoy was sitting at his desk and deeply engrossed in some sort of paperwork. She glared at his back and walked up to him. Shetapped him on the shoulder and said, "Malfoy."

"Granger." His cold grey eyes turned to look at her. "What do you want?"

"Can't I come in here to have a friendly chat with my partner?"

Draco turned back to his papers and said, "Both of know that that's not what you're in here for so why don't you get on with it and tell me what you really want."

Hermione rolled her eyes and looked back at Draco who smirked at her. "You have personal assistants, don't you?" Draco didn't answer her so she continued, "I'm taking that as a yes because this whole office knows that you have personal assistants. About ten of them."

"Get to the point, Granger," he muttered lifting his feet of the ground and placing them on his desk right in front of her.

Hermione looked at his polished black shoes with disgust and said, "A desk is for writing, not for keeping your feet."

"My office, I do what I want. Is that all you wanted to say?"

Hermione glared at the blond and said, "Why did you ask Evy to get you coffee when you have ten other people to get it for you and don't you dare say that none of them were here because I passed a bunch of them on my way here."

"She was in your office with some papers with I came, this morning. Naturally, I couldn't resist asking her for something. That is her job, isn't it? Besides, haven't you heard of sharing?" Draco stared at her with a bored look.

Hermione shoved Draco's feet off the table and placed both her hands on the desk. Draco scowled at her and placed them on the table again. "I share with people who don't have what I have. I don't share with people who have ten times what I have."

Draco rolled his eyes at her and said, "That is without a doubt untrue. You've shared your assistant with Potty and Weasel loads of times and they both have three assistants."

Hermione smiled and replied, "Yes, that is what friends do. We share no matter what. You are not my friend. I see no reason to share with you."

Draco stood up and leaned over the desk. Their faces were only about ten inches apart. "If you think that I'm going to let you talk to me that way, you're mistaken so get out, mudblood."

The look he was giving her felt as though he was staring right into her soul. "I-I don't have to leave. We're partners; I can be in here any time I want."

Draco looked at her with disgust and said, "You want to be in here because I sure as hell don't want you in here."

Hermione glared at him and replied, "I came in here to ask you not to ask Evy for anything. Use your own assistants. You have ten of them." Hermione made to leave but instead walked around the desk. "If you ever do this again, I will be very unhappy."

Draco would have normally replied but instead a glint appeared in his eyes and he took a step back from her. "Are you going to leave now?" he asked coldly. "You're hair is shedding on my floor."

Hermione looked at him astonished for a second then turned and left his office. She ran her fingers though her hair and imagined stabbing him with a knife. Her hair was not bushy anymore. It was more curly than bushy. It didn't stick out everywhere thankfully.

She marched back into her office only to see the mound of paperwork that Evy had dropped off this morning. She let out a deep breath as she started working. It seemed as though today would be a normal day; Paperwork, paperwork, more paperwork, and a few interruptions from Malfoy. She would live. Forgetting all about what had happened just moments ago, she busied herself with it. Life was normal for the time being.

Little did she know that it was just the beginning.


	2. Chapter 1

Here's the next chapter and it is pretty much where the whole thing starts so I hope you all like it. Thank you to **dracissa** and **IceBreakersKiss** for reviewing!

**Disclaimer- I do not own Harry Potter or any of its characters. They are all owned by J. K. Rowling but I do own those characters, which you do not recognize.**

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Hermione came to work the next day with a particularly bad headache. It felt as though someone was pounding on her head and every sound seemed louder than usual. It was not a hangover because Hermione never drank. If she did it was only a glass of butterbeer. Two glasses at the most and that was all.

Anyways, she was sitting at her office with her hands on her head staring at the mound of paperwork that her boss had given her today as well.

"Miss Granger," came Evy's voice. "Miss Granger, are you alright?"

"I'm fine..." mumbled Hermione massaging her temples.

Evy looked at her boss concernedly and said, "Are you sure there isn't anything I can get you?"

Hermione turned around and said, "No Evy, I'm fine, thank you though."

Evy nodded to her boss and left the office. Hermione groaned inwardly as she took the paper at the top of the stack and began reading it. She was so zoned out that she didn't even notice that someone had entered her office until he cleared his throat. "Ahem."

Hermione jerked her head up only to be met by a pair of silver grey eyes. "What?"

Malfoy leaned on the wall and said, "Boss wants us."

"For what?" she snapped, rubbing her temples again.

"Why don't you come and see for yourself."

"Stuff it, Malfoy. I've got a horrible headache and before you say anything, it is not a hangover. I would never be caught dead in a situation like that."

Draco rolled his eyes and looked at her with a bored look. "Are you going to come or not?"

Hermione dragged her hand down her face and grudgingly got up. She didn't even push in her chair as she left the office.

As she and Draco were walking, he asked, "Granger, I may not care for your health but if this headache is going to interfere with our work, then why don't you take something for it?"

"The healing wards are all the way on the other side of the building and there's no way to get there without walking," she growled, walking into the glass door that led to their boss's office. Draco let out a short laugh before opening the door and going inside. Hermione glared at his back as she got up and went inside as well.

"Ah, Mr. Malfoy, Ms. Granger. Come in!" The voice had come from a man about Draco's height with light brown hair and a jolly sort of face. He had a cane in one hand and seemed to walk with a bit of a limp. This was their boss, Daniel Ringler. He pulled out his wand which was abnormally thick and conjured up two chairs for them to sit on. Hermione, despite all the pain she was in, managed to sit gracefully. "Well, seems that we have a problem this morning, a serious problem."

"What is it, sir?" asked Draco, his voice devoid of all emotion.

"I've just received an anonymous tip that a wizard by the name of Igneus Norbery is going to attack a store in muggle London. The store itself is in a secluded area but there are bound to be people in it. With that comes the risk of the exposure of magic." He stood up and pointed his cane at the two of them. I need you both to get there before he does and stop him somehow."

"Where exactly in muggle London is it?" asked Hermione frowning slightly.

Mr. Ringler smiled at Hermione and said, "I'm sure you know the place very well, Ms. Granger. In fact, it's not far from your apartment."

"You live in muggle London?" sneered Draco looking at Hermione. He assumed that like Potter and Weasley, she lived in a wizarding community, not in muggle London.

Hermione merely nodded not even registering the fact that he was trying to show his disgust for her.

About ten minutes later, Hermione and Draco were walking quickly down a street in London that was littered with a few people here and there. It wasn't a very busy street at all. Just as Mr. Ringler said, it was a nice secluded area that would make Hermione and Draco's job much easier. The two of them stopped in front of a small magazine store.

"What is this place?" asked Draco glaring at the magazines he could see through the window.

"A magazine shop," Hermione replied, rubbing her head.

"Do they sell wizarding magazines here?"

Hermione glared at him and muttered, "Not so loud..." She entered the shop a few seconds later without Draco following behind her. Once inside she said, "Ok, one thing you need to know...they have camera's here and-

"Spare me the lecture, Granger."

Hermione rolled her eyes. She was not trying to give him a lecture, she was merely informing him. She rubbed her head and said, "It's a sort of muggle object that records anything that happens in a certain area so that you can see it later. It's mostly to prevent theft or robbery."

"It spies on people?" asked Draco looking at her with narrowed eyes.

Hermione snorted and said, "You could say so...anyways, if any magic is used, we have to get to the cameras and destroy them." She gestured to four different cameras. One was behind the cashier who looked to be a twenty year old girl, another one was right above the door, another one was in the back of the store, and the last one was on the ceiling in the middle of the store.

"Muggles are so paranoid."

"Well, they have a right to be," she replied. Hermione frowned once more then turned to Draco. "One last thing...if any magic is used, make sure every single door is locked, including the entrance so that you..."

"Can obliviate the muggles that are there," said Draco smoothly finishing off what Hermione was about to say. "I know, Granger. I'm not daft."

Hermione nodded nervously. "Good...let's be on the lookout, shall we?"

Draco nodded as he turned away from her. His eyes turned back to the front of the store a few seconds later as the door opened. He grabbed a magazine from a nearby shelf and poked Hermione with it.

Hermione glared at him and turned to see what he did that for and her eyes widened. There, at the entrance of the shop was Igneus Norbery. He looked exactly like an ordinary muggle to most people but Draco and Hermione were not fooled. "He's armed," remarked Hermione, noticing the outline of his wand in his jacket.

Draco nodded solemnly as his eyes carefully followed the man. "Let's wait till he actually does something."

"But what if..."

"Granger, just do as I say." Hermione glared at Draco and rubbed her head wondering when this day was going to end.

About twenty minutes passed and nothing happened. Igneus had browsed through the store for quite a while and had finally selected a few magazines to buy. He was paying the girl at the counter for the magazines when suddenly, there was a scream. Hermione and Draco ran to the front of the store to see what was going on. Igneus Norbery was standing behind the counter with one hand that had a knife around the girl's neck and the other hand with his wand pointing at her neck. He laughed and said, "Nobody move! I'll take what I came for and I'll be out of here. Open the register, girly, and give me all the money." Igneus kept the knife around the girl's neck and pulled out a plastic bag that was behind the counter.

Hermione began to move forward as the girl started whimpering but Draco caught her around her waist and pulled her back. She glared at him as he tightened her grip. This of course, caught Igneus's attention and a wide smile formed on his face as he looked at the two. With his wand still pointed at her neck, he said, "I wouldn't do anything if I were you...bloody Aurors, always sticking their noses were they don't belong."

"Let the girl go, Igneus," said Draco his eyes level with Igneus's.

Igneus laughed loudly as he replied, "And if I don't?" He pressed the knife a little closer to the girl's neck causing the people in the store to gasp. Draco looked sideways at Hermione who nodded and slowly released her.

Igneus missed this whole interaction between the two and kept grinning maniacally at Draco. He glanced down at the register where the girl was taking out the money and said, "Keep going, girly."

Hermione looked at Draco and whispered, "On your signal..."

Draco looked at Igneus, who was greedily watching all the money being transferred into his sack and his eyes narrowed. He looked back at Hermione through the corner of his eyes and muttered, "Go."

Hermione pulled out her wand and bellowed, "CONCUTIO!" The effect was immediate. All four cameras and the lights in the store shattered sending sparks to the ground. The whole store was now in chaos. Muttering a quick locking spell, green sparks flew out of her wand, sealing the store off from the outside.

Draco and Igneus though were a different story, they were circling each other in the middle of store with their wands pointed at each other. Igneus had dropped his knife for he had not seen that coming and figuring that it would be a useless attempt to keep the girl, he decided to go for Draco instead.

"I really wish that it didn't have to come to this," said Igneus with a small smile.

"You come with us and this will all be over," said Draco.

"What makes you think that I want it to be over?" asked Igneus with a smile. Without warning, he said some words in a foreign language and ten jets of red light shot out of his wand, each heading in a different direction. Draco managed to shield the one coming towards him and three of the ones that were going towards the people in the shop, who were huddled on the ground and screaming. Hermione on the other hand had two coming toward her. She managed to block those two and somehow managed to block three more. The tenth jet of light was nowhere to be seen.

Draco oblivious to this, continued shouting out spells to stop Igneus. Igneus had lightning speed and was using spells that Draco had never even heard of. The language that Igneus was speaking in seemed to be some sort of ancient language, which Draco could not identify.

Out of nowhere, he heard a scream and saw Hermione glow bright red and fall to the ground. His eyes widened in surprise as he looked at Igneus who grinned at Draco and said, "Your turn."


	3. Chapter 2

**Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed! I'm in a rush right now so no long author note. PLease read and review at the end!**

**Disclaimer- I do not own Harry Potter or any of its characters. They are all owned by J. K. Rowling but I do own those characters, which you don't recognize.

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Hermione Granger woke up to only to see that the room she was in was pitch black. There was no light anywhere and she could not see anything at all. The only thing she knew was that she was in an uncomfortable bed somewhere.

"Hello?" she called out. Hermione didn't hear an answer. She frowned to herself as she slowly lowered herself from the bed. The fact that it was pitch black didn't make it any easier. She didn't even know where she was. The last thing she remembered was that she was at that magazine shop with Malfoy and some kind of a curse hit her. She knew nothing after that.

She sighed to herself and kept feeling around the room. If her wand was with her, she would have done something to light the room but at the moment, she had no clue where it was. As she was walking, she felt a door knob and was dismayed to find that it was locked. So she began pounding on what she thought was the door that led outsideand screamed, "If anyone is there, open this door right now!"

As she was yelling for someone to open up the door, she heard a small cough and turned around. "Who's there?"

She heard footsteps and then someone say, "You must have been hit really hard with that curse if you don't know who I am."

"Malfoy?"

"The one and only," he replied coldly.

Hermione frowned and said, "How did you get in here?"

Draco snorted and said, "Lost your marbles have you? I came through the door."

"The door? But I didn't see it open," replied Hermione still unaware of where he was standing.

Draco rose an eyebrow and muttered, "You were pretty deep in concentration, pounding something requires a lot of it, I suppose."

Hermione frowned and put a hand on her hip. "If you had come in, I would have seen you come in because the door would have opened and some light would have come into the room."

"Some...light?"

"Yes, some light. It's so dark in here that I can't even see a thing."

Draco regarded Hermione with a puzzled look on his face. "Are you mad, Granger? It's broad daylight and all the windows are open."

"What are you talking about, Malfoy? I can't see a thing so how could it possibly be light?"

Draco's eye widened with shock as he slowly approached her. One he was about a foot away from her, he held up two fingers about five inches away from her eyes and said, "How many fingers am I holding up?"

Hermione rolled her eyes and said, "It's dark in here, how am I supposed to see?"

"Granger, my fingers are right in front of your face." Draco looked at her with a look that resembled concern as realization dawned upon her face. She slowly brought her hand up in front of her face and felt his fingers as he brought them down.

Hermione quickly took a step back crashing into something that was right behind her. "Wh-what…I…"

Draco helped her up and guided her to her bed. After wiping his hands on the blankets on the bed he said, "Stay here, I'll get a healer."

Hermione sat numbly on the bed. Her mind was in utter chaos right now. So many questions were running through her mind and she couldn't even think properly. She didn't look like she was worried though. She looked perfectly calm and unmoving.

She was so still that when the healer and Malfoy rushed in two minutes later, they thought that she had gone into some sort of comatose state.

"Ms. Granger! Ms. Granger!" yelled the healer at Hermione's unmoving body. "Can you hear me?" Hermione nodded at the voice. The healer sighed out of relief and said, "Thank goodness. Well, Mr. Malfoy here has just informed me that you aren't able to see anything." Hermione shook her head unable to say anything. "From what Mr. Malfoy has told us, you were hit by a particularly nasty curse, which no one has knowledge of."

"No one…perfect," muttered Hermione, pulling on a strand of her auburn hair.

No one, Ms. Granger," continued the healer in a soothing voice. "By the way, I am Healer Roland." Hermione merely nodded and continued pulling on her hair. Healer Roland held up his wand to her eyes and muttered "Lumos" and a bright light immediately emerged from his wand. "Can you see this?"

"No…"

Healer Roland frowned and looked Draco who appeared as though he had swallowed something nasty. "This is indeed, very puzzling."

"If she's just blind, can't you cure her?" asked Draco in a low tone.

"I'm afraid not. You told us that she glowed red when she was hit with the curse." Healer Roland scratched his chin and replied, "Glowing is never a good sign and if we try to take away her blindness with a simple counter curse, there are bound to be side effects…horrible ones, in fact."

"Like what?" asked Hermione.

"I'm not entirely sure…this isn't my area of expertise. I'll have to contact one of my colleagues in Japan who deals with these sorts of curses."

"Isn't it better to take a risk and try to cure her then?" snapped Draco, looking at his watch.

"No, no, no," replied Healer Roland with a huff, "there is always a side effect to any spell. Some are more pronounced than others. Some of them, you can go your whole life not even knowing that something has happened to you as a result of the curse." He looked back at Hermione whose face was expressionless and said, "You live in muggle London, do you not?"

"Yes, I do."

"Well, I'm afraid that you can't live there until we've found a counter curse for your err…affliction."

"And why not?" she asked, trying to keep herself calm. If Hermione could have seen the Healer, she would have given him a glare that would have scared him to no end.

"You need someone to watch over you while you can't see. Besides, you might be in danger considering your position in the ministry."

"Are you saying that my apartment isn't safe? I can assure you that I live in one of the safest neighborhoods in London not to mention the fact that I live on the ground floor," muttered Hermione through clenched teeth.

"That may be so, Ms. Granger," replied the Healer nervously, "but this is only temporary. Once you get used not having you sight, I'm sure that you would be able to move back into your old apartment. For now, I need you to stay with some witch or wizard who can give you the protection and care that you need."

"Where exactly are you suggesting that I stay? None of the people whom I feel comfortable with are even in the country right now," she spat.

Healer Roland exchanged glances with Draco who stood up straight and let out a cold laugh. "You want her to stay with me? I can barely stand the sight of her at work. What makes you think I'd want her in my house?"

"It's not a question of what you want, Mr. Malfoy. I'm only suggesting what's best for Ms. Granger under these conditions."

"Exactly," cut in Hermione. "Living with him, will not make me any better. In fact, I'll probably be dead by the time the month is up."

Healer Roland frowned at the auror and said, "I'm sure it can't be that bad."

"No, she's telling the truth," replied Draco eyeing Hermione with distaste. "One of will probably be dead by the time the month is up."

"Then figure out a way to stay alive," the healer replied. "Now if you'll both excuse me, I have to go inform the head of the department of this predicament." Healer Roland gave Hermione a pat on her shoulder and walked out of the room, shaking his head sympathetically.

The two were left in silence for a while until Hermione asked, "Did you take care of everything?"

"What?"

"At the magazine store…"

Draco rubbed his forehead and said, "I'm not an Auror for nothing."

Hermione sighed as she looked into darkness. "About what the Healer said…"

"What about it?"

"I really don't want to stay at your house-

"Then don't."

"-but if that's what's the safest, then I have no other choice, Malfoy."

Draco stared at her and ran a hand through his hair. "Do you really have no where else to stay?"

"Look, I'll stay out of your way while when you're at home."

Draco let out a sigh and looked at the blind girl for a few seconds. Would it really be that bad if she stayed at his mansion for a while? She would get on his nerves, yes, but she had promised to stay out of his way. Then there was also the fact that his mother was still there. She often got lonely. Maybe, she wouldn't mind Hermione's company. The issue of Hermione being a mudblood might have some effect but it couldn't be that bad…

Draco let out a breath as he frowned at Hermione. "What?" she asked.

"You can stay at my manor, I suppose. You'll have to keep my mother company, after all, she and the house elves will probably be watching you."

"House elves?" asked Hermione, her voice taking on a dangerous edge to them. "I don't make house elves do my bidding, Malfoy."

"Deal with it, mudblood," replied Draco, coolly. He looked at her in silence and took in her appearance. She seemed extremely exhausted and her normally vibrant hair hung limply around her face. Her eyes seemed a bit glazed over causing them to become a light shade of brown rather than amber.

Draco coughed and said, "I should be going to work. It's already ten. I'll tell Mr. Ringler about your condition."

Hermione nodded as Draco frowned at her. "I'll probably be discharged today seeing as there's really no point in my staying here for a long period of time," she started. "If it isn't too much trouble, would you mind sending someone to my apartment to get me?"

Draco nodded then remembering that she couldn't see, he said, "I'll send a house elf at around half past nine."

He turned on his heel and without a second glance, left the room with his robes billowing behind him and Hermione yelling, "You will do no such thing, Malfoy! Either send a person or come get me yourself. I will not come with a house elf." When she didn't get a reply, she yelled, "Come back here ferret!"

Hermione sighed once again. She supposed that should would be doing a lot of that especially since there was nothing much that a blind person could do. Of course, she would find something to do but it would be a little difficult for a while. There was also, Malfoy's mother. Hermione had seen her twice before, once at the Quidditch world cup in her fourth year, and shortly after the war when Draco had come to court to answer a few questions for the ministry. She didn't look that bad. It would no doubt be a little hard trying to cope with the woman, but Hermione was sure that things would work out eventually. After all, they always did. Lying down completely, she curled up in a ball as she went to sleep, dreaming nothing but complete darkness.


	4. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer- I do not own Harry Potter or any of its characters. They are all owned by J. K. Rowling but I do own those characters, which you don't recognize.**

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Just like Hermione said, the healers discharged her that very day from St. Mungo's. There really was no point in keeping her there as she was perfectly healthy so they sent her home with a nurse who would stay with her for the rest of the day.

Once Hermione got back to her apartment, the nurse helped her pack most of her things into a magically enchanted suitcase that was pretty much bottomless. It wasn't very heavy either. By the time she had finished packing her things, her apartment was nearly empty. That's what the nurse had told her at least. When Hermione asked why she needed to pack her furniture, the nurse had only replied that it was so that none of her stuff would be stolen while she was away.

The nurse took her to the landlord who was a very kind man and Hermione told him that she would be away for an indefinite period of time. When Hermione asked if he would keep the apartment for her, he replied that he would as long as she still paid the rent.

Currently, Hermione was sitting on the floor in her apartment with her suitcase next to her. She was wearing a black jacket with her wand up her sleeve. The nurse had left this morning after making sure that Hermione was able to get ready alright.

At half past nine, Hermione heard a small "pop" and stood up. "Who's there?"

"It's me, mudblood," replied Malfoy sourly.

"Oh and where's the house elf? I was so sure that you'd send one," replied Hermione feeling around for her bag.

Draco rolled his eyes and picked her bag up for her. "You're lucky that my mother is such a sympathetic person. She's the one who made sure that I personally came and brought you." He gave her his arm and after fixing her with a steely gaze, said, "Take my arm. We're taking the floo since you can't apparate into the manor."

Hermione nodded in reply as she grabbed onto his arm with one hand. He guided her to the fireplace and pulled out a packet with green powder. Throwing it into the fireplace with grace, his eyes shone as the fire roared bright green. "Did you already close the floo network here?"

"They'll be here in about an hour to close it," she replied.

Draco nodded and pushed her in front of him. "Fire's in front of you, mudblood. Malfoy Manor."

Hermione yanked her hand from his arm and stood in front of the fire. She could feel the heat on her face and it was not at all pleasant. Taking a deep breath, she yelled, "Malfoy Manor!" Stepping into the fire, she disappeared with a roar.

Stepping out of the fireplace, she took a few steps forward and stopped. The room that she had stepped into reeked of magical energy. As an auror, she had been trained to feel for magical energies in order to detect magic. She could feel the energy in this room pulsating off of every corner.

"There's so much of it, isn't there?" asked a voice from next to her ear.

Hermione nodded and said, "I just wish I could see it." If she could see, she probably would have been able to see a multitude of dark colors swirling around the room. It looked dangerous but beautiful and breathtaking at the same time.

She felt Draco take the sleeve of her robe as he led her from the room. From what she could tell, she was walking on cold marble floors. It was a bit unnerving to hear only the clacking of her shoes and his while walking in utter silence.

"Where are we going, Malfoy?"

He turned to her as they were walking and replied, "My mother wanted to meet you as soon as we got here."

They continued walking and finally they stopped. "Why are we stopping?"

Draco rolled his eyes at her and hissed, "There's a door, mudblood. I need to open it."

Draco let go of Hermione and opened the golden double doors, which creaked loudly. He grabbed her sleeve again and managed to pull her into the room.

As soon as Hermione got into the room, she felt another sort of magic begin swirling around her body. It had a very weak presence though, as though it was there but not really there at the same time.

Draco steered Hermione to a chair as a pair of sharp blue eyes followed him. Then dropping her sleeve, he muttered, "Sit down." Hermione felt behind her for the handles of the chair and once she grasped them, she lowered herself into the chair. Draco turned to the pair of blue eyes that had been watching him and said, "Mother."

Sitting in front of Hermione on a lush green couch was a proud woman with white blond hair that gleamed magnificently. Her face had a few wrinkles here and there and she had an air of confidence about her. Her eyes shone eerily as she watched her son.

"So, you are Hermione Granger," said Narcissa Malfoy from the couch. Hermione nodded uncomfortably as the corner of Narcissa's mouth twitched. "I've heard so much about you."

Hermione nearly frowned. She gripped the arm rests on her seat and said, "Thank you for letting me stay here."

Narcissa merely smirked at Hermione and said, "Shame that you're a mudblood though."

Hermione resisted the urge to scream as she replied carefully, "I'm proud of who I am…who my parents are. Nothing will ever change that."

"Hmm…intelligent and beautiful as well, such a shame."

"Mother," said Draco looking at his mother through narrowed eyes. Hermione shifted uncomfortably in her seat.

"Yes?"

"You would do well to be quiet," replied Draco softly.

Narcissa rolled her eyes at her son and replied, "Oh posh, I'm only repeating what you've been telling me."

Hermione felt her cheeks grow red. If she could see, she would have seen Draco's face grow even paler than normal. "Mother, do be quiet."

"As you wish, dear." Narcissa squinted at Draco and said, "Don't you have somewhere to be right now?" Draco glared at his mother.

Hermione heard footsteps and called out, "Malfoy, where are you going?"

He turned back to her with an emotionless face and said, "Work. I unlike the rest of the occupants of this room have job." Hermione opened her mouth in indignation but was cut off by Draco saying, "Mr. Ringler said he'll meet with you next Tuesday about this situation." Draco turned on his heel once more and left the room closing the door behind him.

Narcissa turned back to Hermione as her son left and a small smile appeared on her face. She stood up and gracefully walked over to Hermione. "Why don't we go for a walk, Ms. Granger? I daresay that we'll both enjoy one." Narcissa pulled out her wand and muttered a few words. A moment later, a black cane appeared in her hand. She took Hermione's hand and placed it around the handle.

"What is this?"

"A cane, dear," replied Narcissa helping Hermione to her feet. Hermione cautiously got up and let the old woman take her right arm and lead her out of the room.

Once they got out, Narcissa said, "The Malfoy Manor happens to be notoriously famous for its many corridors. People who don't know their way around here could get lost and starve to death." Hermione's face grew pale. "But you won't have to worry about that because you will be memorizing you're way around here."

"But I can't see…"

"Every Malfoy who has ever lived in here knows their way around here with their eyes closed. As you are staying here for an unclear period of time, it would be beneficial if you knew your way as well." Narcissa's blue eyes seemed to glow for a second but returned back to normal.

The two of them continued walking as Narcissa told Hermione more about the manor. It was undoubtedly the largest place apart from Hogwarts Hermione had ever heard of in her life. It consisted of four parts: the north wing, the south wing, the east wing, and the west wing. Had it been one of her friends telling her this, Hermione would have sarcastically said, "How original."

The room in whish she had first entered the manor was the East Blue study. There were two studies in each wing of the house but only the blue study was connected to the floo network. The room in which Hermione had met Narcissa had been the living room which connected to the entrance hall of the east wing. Then, in each wing, there was also a dining room, a formal sitting room, and four guest bedrooms. The kitchens were in the dungeons.

Hermione and Narcissa were currently in the back garden, which smelled heavenly. The only problem was that the pathway they were on was made of rocks causing Hermione to trip every few steps.

"Tell me about your family, then. Muggles, the whole lot of them?"

Hermione reached out blindly to smell a flower that was next to her and replied, "Yes…my mum's got one sister who lives in America and my dad has two brothers. One lives in Scotland and the other lives in Canada. My grand parents are all dead."

"Careful, the thorns of these black roses are poisonous."

Hermione rose an eyebrow as she pulled her hand back. As much as she wanted to see what black roses looked like, she didn't want to get poisoned from them.

"What do your parents do?" asked Narcissa, sweeping a strand of blond hair out of her eyes.

"They are dentists."

"Pardon?"

"They are err…teeth doctors. People come to them to get their teeth cleaned and to get their teeth fixed if they aren't straight."

"Ah, I suppose they fixed your teeth then?" Narcissa smiled at Hermione though Hermione couldn't see it. "Draco wrote me a letter once telling me how your teeth reminded him of a beaver."

Hermione let out a small laugh. "Well, it's really thanks to him that my teeth are like this."

Narcissa helped Hermione up a set of steps and into a chair and asked, "How so?"

Hermione grinned, recalling the memory. "Well, it was during fourth year…Harry and Malfoy got into a fight. Harry's curse hit Goyle or someone andMalfoy'scurse hit me…my teeth began growing and growing. So when I went to the hospital wing, Madam Pomfrey asked me to tell her when I wanted her to stop and so I have these now." Narcissa clapped her hands and a house elf appeared with a pop causing Hermione to jump. "What was that?"

"A house elf with tea," muttered Narcissa turning her nose up at the creature who handed her a tea pot and two cups. She waved her hand at it and it disappeared. She poured tea into both the cups and handed it to Hermione. Narcissa took a sip and said, "You called my son Malfoy."

"That's what I've always called him," replied Hermione uneasily, sipping her tea.

"And he calls you mudblood…" Hermione nodded, feeling around for the table to set her cup down on. Narcissa sighed and took the cup from Hermione.

"Mrs. Malfoy-

"Narcissa, please."

"Right, would you mind telling me a bit about your family? I've never heard much more than what people usually hear." Hermione tightened her grip on her cane. She knew that she was pushing her luck here. Not many people knew much about the Malfoy family. They kept everything secret. Hermione felt that since Narcissa had asked about her family, it was only right that she ask about their family.

Narcissa eyed Hermione beady from behind her cup. Slowly putting it down, she said, "Before I married Lucius, I was a Black…you must already know plenty of history about that side of my family." Narcissa threw Hermione a disgusted glare enjoying the fact that the girl couldn't see it. "Lucius's family on the other hand is much purer than mine. The Malfoys have been around since before Hogwarts started. They were immersed in the Dark Arts from the start…they would be appalled at how Draco has turned out."

"And you're not?" asked Hermione.

Narcissa gave a fake laugh and said, "You funny little girl, of course not, though I can't say that I'm too pleased about it. It's his choice to do as he pleases. Besides, he's been a lot better since Lucius…"

Hermione, though she couldn't see the woman knew that she was truly sad about Lucius's death. Hermione couldn't care less that Lucius was dead but it could have been possible that maybe there was a side to him that actually cared for Narcissa. "I'm sorry…"

"Don't be…the healers did all they could to help him. They were very close friends of his, in fact." Narcissa took out a handkerchief and blew her nose. "It must weigh heavy on their consciences that they could not save him."

Hermione took this in with as little emotion as possible. It all seemed a bit strange to her. Lucius Malfoy was being treated by healers who were friends of his. Friends who were most likely immersed in Dark Magic and would have found means to keep him alive. From what she remembered, Lucius Malfoy died of severe blood loss. Apparently by the time the potion had been made, he was dead.

Narcissa sniffed and put her handkerchief away. She helped Hermione out of the chair and the two of them started walking back towards the manor. Once they were inside, Narcissa took Hermione to the south wing, where her room was. Her room wasn't one of the normal guest rooms. It was about four times the size of the guest room. It was about as big as Hermione's whole apartment.

Once Hermione had gotten inside, Narcissa snapped her fingers. Another house elf appeared and bowed to her. "This is Hermione Granger," began Narcissa in an arrogant tone. "She will be staying with us and is to be treated like family, do I make myself clear?" The house elf squeaked in reply and disappeared. "Stupid creatures, don't you think?"

Hermione merely kept quiet for fear that if she opened her mouth, she would begin yelling at the woman.

"Now, Hermione, dinner will be at 6:30 sharp. I expect you to be in the west dining room dressed nicely. Call for an elf if you need one."

Hermione managed to choke out a, "Thank you."

Narcissa smirked at the younger woman before turning. Just as she was about to leave, she turned around and faced Hermione. "Ms. Granger, ever since I was a little girl, I have been able to see glimpses of things to come…"

"Like a seer?"

Narcissa laughed harshly causing Hermione to shiver and said, "No…it's more of when something bad is yet to come." She approached Hermione and said, "Just before you came, I saw something involving my son."

Hermione bit her lip and asked, "Is-was it important?"

"Hermione, my son is the most important thing in my life. I cannot even begin to describe what I saw. It was horrible."

"If you don't mind me asking, why are you telling me this?" Hermione lifted her cane up and began poking around to find something to sit on. She eventually found something, which she later found out was a table, and sat on it.

Narcissa's eyes were shining eerily again. "I believe that you can change what I saw…"

"But what did you see?"

Narcissa smiled at the girl and said, "Good afternoon, Ms. Granger."

Hermione sighed as she heard her door close. Narcissa Malfoy was exactly like her son. Neither of them gave a straight answer and it annoyed the hell out of Hermione. She liked knowing things. She liked knowing exactly what was going on so that she could be in control.

Hermione tapped around the room and presently found her suitcase, which was on top of her bed. She dropped it on the floor and climbed onto the bed. It wouldn't be that hard to sleep for her anymore. It would be permanently dark for her…


	5. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer- I do not own Harry Potter or any of its characters. They are all owned by J. K. Rowling but I do own those characters, which you don't recognize.

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**

The next four days passed by very slowly for Hermione. She was getting used to living in the manor but it was still very hard. She couldn't go anywhere without Narcissa or a house elf always being near her and helping her everywhere. Sometimes she got so mad that she wanted to punch something. She hated being treated like a helpless child. It wasn't that she didn't appreciate it, she wasn't used to it. It tired her to see nothing all the time. Just black. Black wasn't even that nice of a color. It never had been for her.She wanted to see red and gold again.

Draco wasn't helping either. He would walk up behind her without a sound and scare the living hell out of her. Other times, he would purposely trip her and catch her before she fell. She felt like wringing his neck till he couldn't breathe. But she couldn't do that. He was her host. Would any polite guest do that?

Tuesday came and Hermione got up. She was supposed to meet with Mr. Ringler todayto discuss what was going to happen to her. She always got a little nervous when talking to him. He didn't scare her, no he was far from intimidating. She never knew what to expect from him.

After getting ready, she grabbed her cane, which was propped against her bed and began tapping her way towards the front of her room. She slowly opened the door and shoved her cane through to make sure that she wouldn't crash into anyone. Once she was satisfied, she stepped out of her room and locked the door. She patted the sleeve of her robe and smiled when she felt her wand safely tucked into it.

She loved walking down this corridor. She imagined it to be dark and gloomy like the rest of the house, of course, but there was also magic in it. It was a pleasant sort of magic unlike the rest of the house, and it reminded Hermione of her home.

As she walked down the corridor, she ignored the portraits, which were grumbling at her because she was touching them. They were all portraits of blond haired, pale skinnedpurebloods and despised her for even touching their portraits.

'Twenty more steps to go before I reach the stairs' she thought. Around step number nineteen, she stopped and felt the ground with her cane. When her cane went didn't touch the floor, she inched her foot forward and felt the steps. She sighed, thankful that she didn't fall down the stairs. Tentatively, she placed one foot after another, slowly making her way down the stairs.

While she was walking, she heard footsteps come towards her. She frowned and poked her cane into the air. "Who's there?"

Suddenly her cane hit something hard. When she didn't hear anything, she lifted her cane up, but before she could do anything, she heard a voice in her ear whisper, "Mudblood, watch where you poke that thing."

The voice was so close to her that she nearly jumped. Unfortunately, that was enough to make her begin falling down the staircase. She screamed as her body tilted forward. Luckily, a strong arm wrapped around her waist preventing her from falling any further. "You owe me now," growled a voice in her ear.

"I owe you nothing, Malfoy," replied Hermione clutching his arm. She took a deep breath and said, "Since I have no idea where I am, will you please help me down the stairs?"

Draco peeled one of her hands off his arm as he guided her down the stairs. Once down, he said, "Where were you going, Granger?"

Hermione released her grip and said, "To eat something. Where were you going?"

"Mother insisted that I get you from your room," he replied turning his grey eyes away from her.

"That was very kind of her," replied Hermione, brushing a piece of hair out of her face.

"My mother is not a kind person, Granger."

"Oh, and I suppose you are?"

Draco didn't answer that but grabbed a hold of her sleeve and said, "I guess I'll have to take you to the dining hall."

Hermione scowled at him but him lead her there anyways. As soon as they reached the dining hall, Draco let go of her sleeve and sat down next to his mother. Hermione was left tohoble around the table and feel around for a chair.

"Draco! That was rude!"said Narcissa glaring at her son.

"What?"

"Just like you pulled out my seat this morning, don't you think that you should pull hers out as well?"

Draco fixed Narcissa with a pointed look, which if Hermione could have seen it, she would have known that it said that I don't do favors for mudbloods. Narcissa stared back at her son with the same arrogance causing Draco to scowl at her. He grudgingly took Hermione's robe once again and pulled out a chair for a her to sit in. Much to Hermione's dismay, he took her cane from her then looking at his mother with a scowl, he bowed down low to her. Narcissa let out a small laugh and continued eating.

Hermione sighed inwardly as she felt around for her plate. Once she found it, she snapped her fingers and a house elf appeared next to her. This was one thing that Hermione hated about living here. She was forced to use house elves. No one would put food on her plate for her. If she was staying with Harry or Ron, they would have gladly helped her but here, it was beneath people to put food for other people. "Ollie, would you mind putting some butter and toast on my plate?"

The house elf looked at her nervously and snapped its fingers. Two pieces of toast with butter already on them appeared in Hermione's plate. "Orange juice, please? Thanks." The house elf's eyes almost popped out of its head as the orange juice appeared. It had never gotten a please or a thank you. It bowed at Hermione and disappeared as quickly as it came.

"House elves are wonderful things, aren't they, Granger?" asked Draco with a glint in his eyes.

"I'm not answering that, Malfoy," muttered Hermione putting a piece of the toast in her mouth.

"This is wonderful!" said Narcissa looking at Draco and Hermione. Draco looked up at his mother in confusion. Hermione merely raised an eyebrow. "This is the first time the three of us are eating breakfast together. Usually Draco is at work by the time I'm up."

"I'm taking her to the office today," muttered Draco gulping down his pumpkin juice. He banged his goblet down on the table, earning himself a glare from his mother. "Ready mudblood?"

"Really, I would have thought you'd have come up with something better than mudblood by now," replied Hermione wiping her mouth with her napkin. "And yes, I'm ready to leave."

Draco stood up and began walking towards the corridor that led from the dining hall to the north wing. When Hermione didn't get up, he frowned and asked, "Granger, we don't have all day here."

Hermione rubbed her forehead. "I need my cane. You took it from me." Narcissa looked at the two with amusement and resumed eating her meal.

Draco glared at Hermione and picked up her cane, which he had put next to his chair and gave it to her. She snatched it from his hand and got up from the table. Wishing Narcissa "good morning," she left the room with her hand clutching the sleeve of Draco's robe.

Once the two were out of Narcissa's sight, Hermione dropped her hand and wiped it on her robe. Draco noticed this with narrow eyes but said nothing.

Finally, they were at the east blue study. Hermione smiled as soon as they entered the room. It felt the same as it did when she first came here. Maybe a little stronger but still the same.

Draco looked at her with disgust and said, "We have to take the floo, so let's go before the network gets too crowded."

Hermione smiled again and said, "Just two seconds, Malfoy...this room is wonderful."

"I never come in here except to use the floo," he replied staring at her.

"Why not? The magic in it...it's so breathtaking. I feel as though I'm in a dream."

Draco walked up to Hermione with a glare plastered on his face and said, "This was my father's study. It's filled with the essence of dark magic." Draco stepped even closer to Hermione and whispered, "If you think that it's beautiful, then you have a lot to think about, Granger."

Hermione shivered as she felt his cool breath rush past her ear. Dark magic...she never would have guessed. The energy in the room made her feel powerful but even light magic did that to her. She did feel something about this magic but she overlooked it. She gulped and said, "Would you move, please?"

Draco allowed a malicioussmirk to cross his face as he stepped aside. He walked over to the fireplace and took some of the green floo powder out of a golden jar that was next to it and threw it into the fire. He smirked to himself as he saw Hermione jump.

"That will take a lot of getting used to," she mumbled. Then stepping up to the fireplace she yelled, "Ministry of Magic!" She disappeared. Draco followed soon after.

Hermione tumbled out of the fireplace and banged into a few of the ministry officials who yelled at her for being clumsy. She tried to explain that she was blind but none of them would listen to her. Only when Draco came, they calmed down a bit. He carefully led her to the Auror Department, stopping only when people stopped Hermione to ask how she was doing.

Once they reached Mr. Ringler's office, Draco knocked on the door. "Come in!" yelled Mr. Ringler. Draco opened the door and pushed Hermione inside. When they got inside, they saw that another man was in there with his wand pointed at Mr. Ringler.

"Is something the matter?" asked Draco coolly, standing in front of Hermione, who could sense that there was something wrong.

Mr. Ringler, who looked a little flushed replied, "Of course not. My…friend was just leaving."

The man snarled at Mr. Ringler and sheathed his wand. "You better not forget, Ringler." The man took one look at Mr. Ringler and turned on his feet. As he passed by Hermione and Draco, his eyes lingered on Hermione for a few seconds longer than normal. Then when his eyes passed to Draco, the corner of his mouth seemed to curl up. Draco looked fiercely at the man who rushed out of the room.

"That didn't seem too pleasant to me," said Hermione leaning on her cane.

Mr. Ringler's eyes lit up as he saw Hermione. "Ms. Granger, please, do sit down. Mr. Malfoy, get a chair for her." Draco looked at his boss with disdain and sourly pulled out a chair for the blind girl. Then, he proceeded to guide Hermione into the chair, taking her cane away once she sat down. "How are you?"

"As good as I can be," replied Hermione fiddling with the sleeves of her robe. "Malfoy's house is very comfortable and his mother has been wonderful to me." Draco looked over at Hermione with an unreadable expression on his face. He turned back to Mr. Ringler who was nodding at her.

"That is good, I suppose…let's see, what did you want to discuss today? Ah, that's right, your job."

Hermione's sighed inwardly, wishing that she could see what her boss's face looked like. "I don't think that it would be beneficial to the Auror department if I worked under my current condition."

"My thoughts exactly Ms. Granger."

Hermione dropped her sleeves and asked softly, "Are you firing me?"

Draco nearly laughed as he saw her expression. "Firing you, Granger? I think this department would crumple into dust if it fired either of us."

Hermione turned her head to the direction of his voice and said, "Was that meant to be a compliment?"

"No, it was meant to show how weak this department is and who you'll be hurting if you give up your job," replied Draco frostily. Under his breath he muttered, "It'll be a compliment the day hell freezes over."

"That's enough, Mr. Malfoy," cut in Mr. Ringler, giving Draco a glare. He turned back to Hermione and said, "Mr. Malfoy is without a doubt right but we can't have any of the other aurors knowing that can we?"

Hermione shook her head weakly and sunk lower into her chair out of relief. "So what's going to happen then?"

Mr. Ringler grinned broadly though she couldn't see it and said, "Let's just say that you'll be going into temporary retirement with-

"Temporary retirement?" shrieked Hermione standing up. She had no idea where she was facing but that didn't matter to her.

"It's exactly what you need," muttered Draco resting his hand on his forehead.

"Shut up, Malfoy!" she yelled. "Temporary retirement! I'm not an old woman! I don't need to retire! Why can't I just-

"Now, Ms. Granger, listen to me. When I say temporary retirement, it's not retirement per se. It's more of a sick leave."

Hermione frowned and sat down. "Meaning?"

"You shall be considered sick until you get your sight back. I will still pay you but not as much as I did when you were working."

"She'll have the same position as before, right?" asked Draco dully.

"Of course, of course," replied Mr. Ringler standing up. "Now, if you'll both excuse me, I have err…urgent business to attend to." He began shooing Draco and Hermione out of the room.

Draco scowled at his boss as he helped Hermione out of her seat. Once they were out of the office, the door slammed with a bang.

"That was a bit weird…" said Hermione running her fingers through her hair.

"Weird? I'd say that man is a bit crazy."

"It's things like that that'll get you fired, Malfoy." Hermione grasped her cane and said, "What was that all about, asking whether I'd still have my position?"

Draco looked at her with a sneer and said, "I was hoping that maybe after this, you would be demoted and I wouldn't have to see your face for a very long time."

"Really?" asked Hermione raising an eyebrow. "I don't believe you, so why don't you tell me the truth."

Draco looked at her glassy eyes as he wished that there was something he could do to make her shut up. He grabbed her arm and began pulling her out of the Auror department. "The truth, Granger?"

"Yes, the truth, Malfoy," she replied, mimicking his voice. She tapped him smartly on his leg with her cane as she let him lead her.

Draco glared at her and said, "That was the truth, Granger."

Hermione frowned at him. "Alright, you go on thinking that, Malfoy. But you know what I think?"

"Does it matter?"

"I think you need me here every day so that you don't go insane."

Draco almost snorted. "Me, need you? I think you're the one who'll go insane." He stopped her and said, "We're at the fireplace. Think you can manage to get around the manor by yourself for once?"

Hermione smirked and said, "Of course, and I've only been there for what? Five days?"

Draco let out a small noise of irritation as he grabbed a hand full of floo powder from on top of the fireplace. He threw it in and within a second, the fireplace roared, turning green. Hermione didn't go though. "What are you waiting for, mudblood? I have a job to do."

Hermione turned to him and bit her lip. "Something didn't feel right with Mr. Ringler. He seemed a little…"

"…occupied. He seemed a little occupied, that's it. It's not my business what he does and it's not yours either." He dropped his voice to a whisper and said mockingly, "You don't need to save the world today."

Hermione gripped her cane tightly as she turned back to the fireplace. Before stepping in, she turned her head to him and said, "The world, Malfoy? I don't think the world needs saving. Personally, I think you need saving." She disappeared leaving Draco with a frown on his face.


	6. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer- I do not own Harry Potter or any of its characters. They are all owned by J. K. Rowling but I do own those characters, which you don't recognize.

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**

About two weeks had passed since Hermione came to live in the Malfoy Manor. During this time, she and Narcissa gained a mutual sort of respect for each other. Hermione went to Narcissa's boring tea parties and Narcissa helped Hermione around the house, telling her the history of the Malfoy and Black families. Hermione found this interesting for some odd reason.

Anyways, the two of them were eating lunch, Hermione listening as Narcissa rattled on about how lovely her great Uncle Vortigern had been to her when she was younger. Somehow, the conversation had shifted onto Draco and Hermione was not too pleased about talking about him.

"Well, what do you think of him?"

Hermione shifted uncomfortably in her seat hoping that her face did not give away anything. "I think he's a bit more...tolerable than before. Nothing can change the fact that I don't like him though."

"Is that so?"

"Of course...it's hard to put 13 years of hatred behind you in two weeks."

Narcissa narrowed her eyes at Hermione before taking a calculated bite of her salad. "I suppose you're right." There was an awkward silence between the two until Narcissa asked Hermione, "Do you remember what I told you when you first came?"

Hermione frowned and slowly put down her fork. She nodded and said, "Is it going to happen soon?"

Narcissa's blue eyes glowed for a bit as she replied, "I can't tell you that, Ms. Granger but I can say that I wish you and my son would try to get along. It will make things much easier when the time comes."

Hermione almost laughed out loud. "Me and him, get along?" She could almost feel Narcissa glaring at her. "I…I guess it wouldn't hurt to try. But if he doesn't do it, I'm not doing it."

Narcissa gave a small chuckle. "Funny, that's exactly what he said." Hermione could feel her cheeks going a little red.

"Is that so?" muttered Hermione feeling around for her fork. She stabbed it into a lettuce leaf that was on her plate and promptly stuffed it into her mouth. A few seconds later, after swallowing the lettuce she replied, "I suppose I could try to be nicer to him…"

"Wonderful!" replied Narcissa, smirking at the brunette. "Now, onto more important matters…"

At this point, Hermione tuned the lady out. Narcissa was a sweet woman, at least to those people she thought well of, but she tended to talk a little too much. Frankly, it was as though she was listening to an older version of Parvati or Lavender speaking. Narcissa knew everything about everyone, which should have attracted Hermione's attention, but Hermione did not really find it that interesting.

"…and she told me that the only reason why the damn elf wasn't listening to her was because it had been given orders by her husband not to do anything she asked it to do. Outrageous, I tell you."

Hermione rubbed her head and smiled in Narcissa'a voice's direction. "Mrs. Malfoy…"

"Narcissa, dear. Yes?"

"Have the healers gotten any news yet?"

Narcissa's blue eyes looked blank for a second. "About your condition? No, I'm afraid not. They would have told you if they found something."

Hermione hung her head in disappointment as Narcissa looked on sadly. "Don't be so glum, Hermione. Think of it as time to do things that you couldn't do before."

"What is there for me to do?" snapped Hermione crossly. "I'm blind. That takes off, I don't know, about 1,000 things from my list of things to do before I die."

Narcissa clucked at Hermione. "Hermione, Draco once told me that you were one of the most infuriating people in the world."

"I wonder why he said that," deadpanned Hermione.

"He said that, dear, because you never gave in to anything he did. I find that an amazing quality in a person and if you let your blindness get in your way, you are not the girl I thought you were."

Hermione sat in awe wondering what to say to the woman in front of her. No one had ever said anything like that to her. Sure, she had been complimented many times in her life, but this was different. She couldn't help but feel smug that it was also coming from one of the most important purebloods in the world.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, Hermione, I have to get going. I'm meeting a friend of mine in about an hour and I won't be home until late tonight."

"Would you like me to wait for you before eating dinner?"

Narcissa laughed and said, "Heavens no, go ahead and start eating. I've made sure that Draco will be here at six, though."

"He usually eats out," replied Hermione blandly.

"Nasty habit in my opinion," spat Narcissa. "Dinner should be eaten at home with one's family. He'll be here, Hermione"

"Do I need to cook anything special?"

Narcissa snorted and eyed the girl with a smile. "Not unless you want to. Draco is not a picky eater, he just appears that way."

Hermione nodded rolled her eyes in her mind as she drank some of her water. Narcissa was truly devoted to her son. It was easy to see why Draco still lived with her. She was very kind for one thing and she stuck up for him all the time.

"Well, I'd best be going, dear. See to it that you get some rest."

"Yes, Narcissa, I will take some rest," replied Hermione grudgingly. As soon as Narcissa left the room, Hermione got up from her seat and left the dining room. She slowly tapped her way towards the back of the manor. Once she got there, she opened the set of double doors that led outside. Hermione smiled as a cool breeze blew past her. Stepping out of the house, she walked for about 100 meters and sat down on the grass. She didn't really care that there were probably worms and other bugs in the grass. Just being out here gave her an unusual sense of calm that she didn't get anywhere else. She sighed and lay back on the grass. Slowly, she drifted to sleep.

She woke up about two hours later. The first thing she realized was that she was not outside any more. She was lying down on top of some sort of couch with a blanket covering her. The second thing was that her cane was not with her. Hermione immediately panicked. She quickly got up from her lying down position and stood up.

She took a deep breath and frowned as she started walking. Immediately, she crashed into something and almost stumbled to the floor but was caught by a strong arm that held her steady. "Where do you think you're going?" came a voice from behind her.

Hermione sighed inwardly as she replied, "Oh, it's you."

Draco let go of his hold on Hermione as he pushed her black cane into her hand. "Who did you think it was?"

Hermione shrugged as she accepted her cane. "I was actually trying to figure out where I was, if you didn't notice."

Draco let out a cold laugh as he guided her back to the couch she was lying down on. "You're in the silver study. I brought you in here after I found you outside sleeping."

Hermione jerked her arm away from him as she sat down on the couch. "Was it a problem if I slept on the grass?"

Draco fixed her with a piercing gaze as he said simply, "It was raining."

Hermione immediately felt guilty for being rude to him. "Thank you..."

Draco waved his hand dismissively then rolled his eyes when he remembered that she couldn't see him. "It was nothing."

"Really?" asked Hermione, raising an eyebrow.

"Only following my mother's orders," he replied coolly. "She would be very disappointed with me if I let you get hurt."

"I almost forgot about that," muttered Hermione to herself.

Draco sat behind his desk and rolled his eyes at her in annoyance. "I suppose you're hungry then..."

Hermione nodded and said, "I would have cooked something but Narcissa told me not to bother."

"Just as well," muttered Draco looking at the papers that were scattered all over his desk. "I'd probably die from food poisoning."

Hermione scowled and said calmly, "I'll have you know that I can cook very well." When Draco only snorted, her scowl deepened as she replied, "I bet that you can't even cook."

Draco looked up from the papers to Hermione and said, "Now why would I need to know how to cook when I have hundreds of elves who can do it for me?"

Hermione's jaw dropped as she brandished her cane towards the direction of his voice. Her face began turning red as she said in a low voice, "How the hell can you just stand there and say that? Do you think that they actually want to cook for you?"

Draco laughed harshly and said, "Granger, I am very sure that even if they had a choice, they would cook for me."

"But you - you don't even eat any meal here except for breakfast!" spluttered Hermione.

"I have my reasons..."

"Such as?"

"The house elves are getting old. As a result, they quality of their work is deteriorating. I for one do not wish to be on the receiving end of that."

Hermione scowled at him as she ran a hand through her hair. "Alright then, since you've decided that we're not eating here then where are we eating?"

Draco let out a laugh, which to Hermione sounded distinctly like broken bells. "Where are we eating, Granger? I normally eat at the office. As you can see, I'm not eating there so I don't know where we're eating right now."

"Ever hear of a restaurant, Malfoy?"

"Of course I have, but I would never take you of all people to one because I'm sure that you eating habits are atrocious. Besides, someone might see us."

"Is it bad if someone sees us?" asked Hermione with a smirk on her face.

Draco stared at her with a discernable look on his face and said, "I'm pretty sure it is. I for one don't wish to be seen on the cover of the Daily Profit or Witch Weekly with you."

Hermione scowled and said, "You know, for someone who's trying to be polite, I don't think that you've got it down too well."

Draco glared at her, glad that she couldn't see it. "Fine, then where do you want to go?"

Hermione bit her bottom lip and thought to herself. Suddenly, it hit her. "We could go to a movie. I mean I wouldn't be able to see but it doesn't matter." She stood up and began pacing in between Draco and the couch. "We could always grab dinner at a drive through afterwards, that wouldn't be a problem but a movie..."

Draco stared at her, his jaw slightly open. "You want me to go into muggle London with you to watch some sort of moving picture that muggles watch for amusement?"

"Exactly!" replied Hermione brightly. "If you're worried about anyone seeing you there, you won't have to worry."

Draco scowled at the brown haired witch in front of him before saying, "Fine, let's go to this…movie of yours, but if anything goes wrong, it's your fault, not mine.

That was how, by the time the day was coming to an end, Hermione and Draco were found at a small burger joint in the middle of London. The movie had been hilarious to Hermione even though she couldn't see it. Draco on the other hand had been horrified and partially freaked out. They had gone to see Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. While Hermione couldn't get over how funny it had been, Draco had been rigid and still the entire time in the movie theater staring at the screen with a mixture of horror and intrigue on his face.

As the two were coming out of the theater, Draco asked, "Are all muggle movies like that?"

Hermione shook her head and with a smile replied, "No, but this, in my opinion was a very good one." Draco paled a bit and secretly vowed never to watch a muggle movie again. Currently, they were at the counter of the fast food restaurant. Hermione had explained what everything on the menu was to Draco and to be honest, it all sounded very interesting to him.

"Hello and welcome to Burger Place! How may I help you?" asked the girl at the desk. She appeared to be about twenty and was chewing a piece of gum.

Draco looked at her with contempt but nevertheless said, "A cheeseburger...thefries, and the… coke."

The girl smiled at him still chewing her gum and mumbled, "Cheeseburger, fries, coke…" She took the three items from a man behind her and gave them to Draco then looked at Hermione who was standing next to him and stared. After looking at Hermione's glassy eyes and cane, she gulped and said in a low whisper to Draco, "What does she want?"

Draco looked a bit taken aback and was about to say something when Hermione said coolly, "Why don't you ask me?"

The girl looked astonished as well. "I-I…"

"I'm only blind, you know," continued Hermione in a low voice. "Not deaf…not mute…and most certainly not dumb!" She was now almost yelling. Everyone in the restaurant was staring at her. "I'm leaving, and don't think that I'll ever come back here again. Let's go, Malfoy." Hermione whirled around, grabbing Draco in the process,who quickly threw some money on the counter and guided her out of the restaurant. Once they were outside, he walked her to a nearby bench and the two of them sat down.

"I never knew you had it in you, Granger," mumbled Draco through his burger.

"Oh shut up, Malfoy."

"Someone's in a bad mood." Hermione turned away from him. Draco took a sip of his coke and said, "This really isn't bad, for a muggle drink." He frowned when Hermione didn't say anything back to him. When he had said muggle outside of the movie theater, she had almost blown up at him. Now, she didn't do anything. "If it helps Granger, I think that girl deserved that."

"Damn right she did," muttered Hermione clutching her cane. She drew her knees closed to her and hugged them. "I don't get it. Just because I'm blind, it doesn't mean that I'm stupid or something."

Draco, who wasn't really paying attention to what she was saying, took a bite of his burger, his eyes widening with delight as he realized that it actually tasted good.

"It makes me feel worthless," continued Hermione, turning back to Draco who looked at her sharply. "I feel worthless right now," she said, with a huff.

Draco dropped his food on the bench and turned Hermione so that she was facing him. He looked her square in the eyes though she couldn't see him and said, "Never say that again."

"Why not? It's true, isn't it? I mean I don't have a job meaning I can't help people. That basically classifies me as useless."

"Say that again, then I swear, I'll curse you. You don't know the first thing about feeling useless," he snarled.

"Oh, and I suppose you do?" asked Hermione with a sneer on her face. "I suppose being rich and getting everything you want classifies you as worthless."

He grabbed her arm and said coldly, "Why don't we continue this discussion back at the manor." He didn't even give Hermione chance to reply as he apparated to the manor.

The two of them appeared in the blue study a few minutes later. Hermione had a shocked look on her face. "How am I in here? I thought you couldn't apparate in here with me."

"Mother did something to the wards." Draco grabbed her by the arm and roughly placed her in the gray chair that was behind the desk in the room. He placed his hands on both side of the chair and leaned forwards till their faces were a few inches apart. "Where were we?"

"Well, I was about to say that if you call yourself worthless then half the world would love to be worthless."

"You don't know the first thing about being worthless, Granger." Hermione shivered as she felt his breath tickle her face. "When I switched sides during the war, that made me feel worthless," he started. "I was around people who had others there for them. No one doubted their loyalties. I on the other hand was watched constantly and I didn't do anything for the first year. I'm sure you remember that. You were constantly with Potter and Weasley while they were teasing me."

"What does that have to do with anything?" asked Hermione as calmly as she could.

"They made me stay at the headquarters while the rest of you went out and fought. People were dying and I could have helped prevent it." Draco's eyes shone with anguish. "You don't have any idea what that feels like. I felt worthless." He unconsciously grabbed her hand and said, "Being blind is far from worthless, Granger. You of all people should know that."

The two sat in silence for a while. Hermione gulped a few minutes later and said, "Malfoy, would you let go of my hand?" Draco's eyes snapped down to his hand which was still holding onto hers and dropped it.

Draco stared at her for a moment then let his usual emotionless mask slide back across his face. He slowly took her arm and pulled her up. "We should both go to sleep. It's late." Hermione nodded and let him take her to her room.

He opened the door to her room and gave her a small push towards that door. Just as he was about to leave, she turned back to him and said softly, "Malfoy…I suppose it's already too late for what Harry, Ron, and I did but I…I'm sorry."

Draco didn't say anything as he watched her close her door. Sighing deeply, he shook his head and made his way towards his chambers unaware of a pair of bright blue eyes watching him. Had he listened closely, he would have heard a soft laugh echo through the corridors of the Malfoy Manor.


	7. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer- I do not own Harry Potter or any of its characters. They are all owned by J. K. Rowling but I do own those characters, which you don't recognize.

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During the month that followed Hermione and Draco's outing, Draco was extremely busy. There seemed to be a drastic increase in dark activity and Draco was away for most of the time. Narcissa was a bit put off by it but it didn't matter too much because she was happy that he was doing something that he wanted to do.

Hermione on the other hand was bored to death by the fact that he was not here. She was forced to listen to Narcissa rattle on and on about her pureblooded friends and how much they hated their husbands. It was amusing to no end but she had other things to do than to listen. As much as she hated to admit it, she was in desperate need of company even if the only company was Draco's.

On the morning of July 6th, (it had been about a month since Hermione had become blind) Hermione was sleeping peacefully in her bed. She had gone to sleep at around ten the night before and had every intention of sleeping in till about ten despite what Narcissa said. That was not going to happen though because at six o'clock in the morning, Hermione was woken up by a very loud knocking at her door.

She lifted her head up and scowled. "Who is it?"

"Who do you think?" came a male voice.

Hermione dropped her head back down onto her pillow and mumbled, "Go away, Malfoy."

Draco rolled his eyes from outside her door and said, "I would but I was sent by my mother to wake you."

"Pray tell," replied Hermione from her bed. "What does she want?"

"Just get up, will you?"

"I think I'm fine right here," muttered Hermione turning onto her side.

"I'm coming in then." Hermione merely let out a loud snore and pulled the covers over her head. Draco glared at her door then after a few seconds said, "I'm coming in now, Granger and don't say I didn't warn you." He whipped out his wand and waved it at the door. He heard a click and slowly pushed the door open. He walked up to Hermione's bed and rolled his eyes. The only thing he could see was a huge lump. He gingerly poked the lump with his wand and said, "Get up."

"Leave me alone. I'm trying to sleep."

"Granger, we both know that neither of us are morning people so I suggest you get up before something drastic happens."

"If you know that I'm not a morning person then why are you here?" mumbled Hermione from under her pillow.

Draco scowled at her and ran a hand though his blond hair which was not in the neatest state. Like Hermione, he had been woken up by Narcissa only ten minutes ago and his awakening had been much ruder than this. Narcissa had poured a bucket of cold water over him. Once he was up, she used a drying spell on him and told him to wake Hermione up.

"Don't make me pour a bucket of water on you." When Hermione didn't reply, he yanked the covers off from over her. He almost laughed when he saw what she was wearing. She was wearing some sort of muggle pants and a huge shirt that said "smile" on it. The pants were bright green and shirt was an ugly yellow color.

Hermione screamed as soon as he pulled the blanket off. "Give back the blanket Malfoy! It's freezing cold!" she yelled, trying to whack him with a pillow.

Draco stared at her unfazed and said, "You need to get up, now."

Hermione scowled and ran a hand through her hair. "Why? Do I have a mysterious date that I don't know about?" she spat. "What time is it anyways?"

"Six."

"You were sent to wake me up at six o'clock in the morning."

Draco's eyes closed for a second before he yawned and said, "Yes. We're going to Diagon Alley today."

"I don't need anything from Diagon Alley though."

"Neither do I," replied Draco impatiently, "but we don't have a choice."

"Of course we do, we're adults. At least I am. I'm not to sure about you but-

"Enough, Granger!" Draco exhaled and rubbed his forehead. Rolling his eyes at her, he said, "Just…get ready, will you?"

Hermione huffed as she reached for her cane, which was at the side of her bed. Making sure to whack Draco with it before she left her bed, she slowly walked to the bathroom and slammed the door behind her. Draco looked at the door with a scowl. Rubbing his arm, he walked out of her room.

She emerged from the bathroom about twenty minutes later with a look of pure boredom on her face. Grumbling to herself, she tapped her way to the door of her room and left for the dining room. Once she made it safely down the stairs, she was met by Narcissa who was pacing anxiously at the bottom.

"Thank goodness! You're finally here!" Narcissa took Hermione's arm and began pulling her towards the table. "I've been waiting for almost 45 minutes. At this rate, I am going to be late."

Hermione yawned and said, "Not meaning to be disrespectful but why exactly do I need to go to Diagon Alley?"

"I can't possibly leave you at home alone. Besides, fresh air will do you some good. You've been cooped up in this manor much too long." Narcissa gathered a few papers that were scattered on the table and stuffed it into a large black purse. "Come dear…the blue study!"

Hermione shook her head as she followed Narcissa out of the room. "Are we going to wait for Mal- Draco?"

"No, we aren't. He has some business to attend to but he'll join us there in about an hour or so." Narcissa stopped and fixed her blue eyes on Hermione whose face looked unusually pale today. "Is everything alright dear?"

"Yes…" Hermione frowned. "Why?"

"You look a bit pale."

Hermione shrugged as she replied, "I took a cold shower."

Narcissa frowned before resuming her path towards the blue study. Hermione followed behind tapping away as she went. She didn't need to tap her way around as much any more. She was a lot more familiar with the corridors and she was able to walk through many of them without using her cane at all. She was proud to say the least.

At last, she came to the blue study. She paused for a moment to relish the feeling of the magic in the room. It seemed a little stronger than usual. It must be because Narcissa was in here. Hermione knew that the woman had done much dark magic in her lifetime. Naturally, her aura must be having some effect on the room.

"What is it dear?" asked Narcissa, noticing Hermione's dream-like state.

Hermione's eyes widened as she realized what she was doing. "Oh-nothing. I must have dozed off for a second, that's all."

Narcissa narrowed her eyes at the girl before stating quietly, "You feel it, don't you?"

Hermione hung her head with shame and replied, "Yes…I wish I could see it though."

Narcissa sighed and said, "It looks beautiful yet, you must also keep in mind that beautiful things can often be dangerous." Narcissa closed her eyes. "I never get tired of it. It reminds me of my past…"

Hermione leaned on her cane before saying, "Draco hates it when I stop to feel the magic."

"Draco hates anything that has to do with his father." Narcissa let out a short laugh that sounded funny. "Then again, there's also the fact that he can't feel it as well as I can. I suppose that he realized that you would also be able to feel it stronger than him because our type of magic is foreign to your system."

"Oh," responded Hermione. "I wasn't aware."

"Not many people are, dear," Narcissa replied sadly. "Come on, I have a lot of work to do today." She took Hermione by the arm and led her to the fireplace. Taking a pinch of the floo powder, she threw it into the fireplace, which roared noisily. After Narcissa had gone in, Hermione followed, coughing as some of the powder got up her nose.

Hermione stumbled out of the fireplace almost dropping her cane in the process. She was caught by a kind passerby who smiled at her as he passed. She thanked him and stood in the same place waiting for Narcissa.

Narcissa came over to Hermione a few seconds later and said, "Alright…I have a few errands here and-

"Pardon me, but where is here?"

Narcissa set her lips firmly together, a bit annoyed at being interrupted but answered, "The apothecary. Anyways, you must hungry." She placed a few galleons in Hermione's hand and said, "This man will take you to the café across the street." She motioned for a man with a red hat to come to her. She turned to him and said, "See that Ms. Granger gets to the café without any harm. She'll be staying there for quite a while so please keep an eye out for her."

The man nodded and took Hermione's hand. He led her out of the shop and deposited her at the café, which had a quite a few customers though it was rather early. After asking her if she needed anything, he left for the apothecary where he waited outside, watching her just as Narcissa had asked him to.

As Hermione sat at the table, she suppressed the urge to yawn. She was very tired and hungry. She was not at all pleased that though there was a menu right in front of her, there was no way that she would be able to choose anything until someone came and read off of it. Sulking to herself, she waited until a waiter or waitress came to order her food.

When the waiter finally came, ten minutes had passed. Scowling at the poor man, Hermione had ordered a glass of orange juice and whatever the special of the day was. She didn't even care what it was as long as she got something. As she was waiting for her food, she heard someone approach her table.

"Is this seat taken?" asked a voice with an American accent. Hermione shook her head as the person pulled the chair out and seated himself in it.

"I'd rather eat with someone else than by myself. This place is a bit overwhelming."

"It can be to those who are not from around here," replied Hermione sulkily. She silently reprimanded herself for speaking so rudely to a stranger.

The man in front of her raised an eyebrow as he heard her answer. "True, very true." He held out his hand to her and said, "Charles Duprés." When Hermione didn't take his hand, he said, "My hand is perfectly sanitary if that's what you're concerned about."

Hermione merely scowled and replied, "I'm blind. I can't see your hand."

Charles looked at her with surprise as she spoke. She certainly didn't seem blind. Most of the blind wizards he had met were rarely seen alone. Even if they were alone, they were always inside somewhere, not out in the open.

After a moment of silence, he asked, "Have you always been blind?"

"No. I had an accident." Hermione sighed impatiently and began tapping her fingers on the table. "What is taking them so long?"

Charles smiled at the woman in front of him, admiring her features. She had beautiful chestnut colored hair with bits of dark brown here and there. Though her eyes were a bit hazy, he could see that they were an interesting amber shade that seemed to sparkle. Her face seemed deathly pale, almost like someone he knew. She was a beauty.

"Are you a pureblood?"

"Does it really matter to them whether or not I'm a pureblood? I just want my food."

"No but…never mind." Charles ran a hand through his immaculately combed dark hair. "Would it be prying if I asked why you're in Diagon Alley?"

Hermione shook her head and replied, "I'm here with a…friend's mother. She didn't want me to be alone at home." Hermione continued tapping her fingers on the table. "Why are you in England?"

"I'm just visiting a relative of mine." Charles's blue eyes widened as he saw a figure approaching. "What are the chances of that? He's here right now."

"Joy," muttered Hermione.

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Draco Malfoy had not been having a very good day. Firstly, he had been woken up at six in the morning by his mother and was then forced to wake up a girl who had a temper nearly as bad as his in the mornings. On top of that, he had been called into the ministry because there had been some emergency paperwork to be done.

Now, he was in Diagon Alley looking for Hermione or his mother. He spotted her curly hair at a café with some man. As he approached the table, his eyes froze. Sitting at the table with Hermione was none other than his cousin, Charles Duprés. A person could have mistaken him and Charles for twins had it not been for Charles's black hair. Draco scowled as he walked over to the table.

He stood right behind Hermione and scowled at his cousin. "Charles."

The two stared at each other for a moment before Charles's face broke into a grin. "Cousin! It's been a very long time, hasn't it?"

Draco didn't reply but grabbed a chair from another table and sat down. He turned to Hermione before muttering, "Granger."

"Malfoy?" Her eyes widened in realization. "You are his cousin?"

"In the flesh," muttered Draco, eyeing his cousin with disgust.

"You two know each other?" asked Charles, frowning.

"We went to school together," replied Hermione absentmindedly.

Draco nodded, fixing Hermione with an unfathomable look. He turned back to Charles and said, "What are you doing here?"

"Ah, well, that's a long story. In the mean time," he to Hermione who was still tapping her hand on the table, "where were we?"

Hermione sighed as her stomach growled. "You were telling me why you were here."

"Oh…right. I suppose you already know now."

Hermione snorted at his stupidity and promptly ignored him. Charles looked at her with an amused look before turning to Draco.

"So, how have you been cousin? It's been what, almost ten years?"

"Twelve years," replied Draco narrowing his eyes at his cousin. He looked at Hermione for a second before leaning closer to Charles and whispering, "Just say what you want to say and be gone."

Charles laughed causing Hermione to turn to him. He had a pleasant sort of laugh that caused her stomach to jump. She frowned for a second before rubbing her head. "Well, you see Draco, here's the thing." He shifted in his seat and fixed Draco with a smirk. "News travels very quickly…things that happen here, us wizards in America find out about it just as fast as you do."

"Get on with it," snarled Draco.

Charles merely grinned and said, "The papers have been saying that you've been seen with a…mudblood."

Draco coolly raised an eyebrow and flashed a look at Hermione whose face now held a very ugly scowl. "Tell me cousin," asked Draco. "Do you think that it's true?"

Charles looked at Draco with a look of mild disgust before replying, "I should hope not."

Draco smirked coldly at the man. "What do you think people would say if they knew that you were in the company of a mudblood right now?"

Charles looked at Draco for a moment with confusion in his eyes. He tilted his head and asked stupidly, "You're a mudblood?"

Hermione let out a short laugh as Draco snorted. Charles's eyes snapped to the brunette. He looked at her in a way that Draco didn't like but that look soon turned into something else. "_Her_?"

"That's right," cut in Hermione. "I am a mudblood and I'm proud of it." She picked up her cane and nudged Draco with it.

"What?"

"Would you mind calling a waiter and asking them what the hell is taking them so long to bring me my food? I have been waiting for almost twenty minutes."

Draco rolled his eyes and looked around for a waiter. Charles looked at the two of them with mild disgust. He would have never believed in a million years that his cousin, a person who was very vocal about his hatred to those other than purebloods was here, taking orders from a mudblood, and a good looking mudblood at that. Mudbloods weren't supposed to be beautiful. Charles looked at Hermione with a thoughtful expression on his face.

Draco saw this and a scowl immediately formed on his face. If it was from general dislike of his cousin or something else, he did not know. "See something you like?"

Charles snatched his eyes away from Hermione before muttering a discreet, "No." He got up quickly and dusted off his robes. He turned to Draco, both their blue eyes meeting. "Well, I'd be on my guard, cousin. You never know what people will do once they find out that it's true."

"What, that I associate with Granger?"

Charles swiftly nodded and ran a hand through his black hair. "People will do anything to get the kind of power you have. When I say anything, I mean anything."

"And how would you know this?"

"I've heard talk," replied Charles with a shrug. "I thought I'd come and warn you."

"I'm touched."

"This is no laughing matter, cousin. Anyways, I might drop by for a quick visit before I go back home. Mom and Dad don't know that I'm here. They think I'm in Italy."

Draco snorted before nodding his head. Charles walked over to Hermione and took her hand in his. He placed a kiss on it and said, "Ms. Granger, it was a… pleasure to meet you." With one last glance at Draco, Charles looked around and swiftly walked away.

Hermione was rubbing her hand with a funny expression on her face. "Are all American wizards like?" she asked more to herself than to Draco.

"Why?" asked Draco nastily. "Would you like him to do that again?" He narrowed his eyes at her waiting for a reaction.

Hermione frowned as she replied, "No but- actually, you know, I wouldn't mind." She smiled and said, "Despite the fact that he called me a mudblood, he was rather polite. He didn't make a big fuss about it at all unlike you."

"What's that supposed to mean, Granger?" asked Draco glaring at the girl.

Hermione turned to him and asked, "Would it kill you to be nice to me once in a while? I know that I'm not the easiest person to get along with but the least you could do is make an effort."

Draco looked at her, his eyes not leaving her face. He didn't really know what to say to her. There really wasn't any reason that he was rude to her apart from the fact that she was a mudblood. He'd been rude to her since day one and it had stuck. He couldn't just change their hostility towards one another like that. After a few minutes of thinking he replied slowly, "I can't, Granger."

"What?"

"I can't."

Hermione frowned as she heard him. "I heard you. Why not?"

"It's…complicated," replied Draco hesitantly.

"Complicated…you know what, Malfoy?" asked Hermione. "I don't know what's going on with you. I ask you one small thing and you tell me you can't." Draco lowered his eyes to the table unable to look at the blind witch. "I suppose it's a secret why you can't. Then again, you've always been full of secrets that no one could figure out."

"That's why they're secrets," Draco replied looking up.

"You're dreadful." Hermione tapped her fingers on the table and sighed. "Can you do one thing for me at least?"

"What?"

"Would you tell this café that their service is horrible and that I refuse to pay for my food?"

Draco smirked at her despite the mood he was in. "Will do, Granger, will do."


	8. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer- I do not own Harry Potter or any of its characters. They are all owned by J. K. Rowling but I do own those characters, which you don't recognize.**

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A week had passed since they had gone to Diagon Alley. Charles had not come to visit yet but Narcissa was somehow sure that he would. Hermione knew better than to ask how she knew that. Draco as usual had been busy with work. He was a little sour about the fact that all of Hermione's work had been loaded onto him and hehad beenforced to do triple the amount. Hermione always did double of what she was asked and Draco was not too pleased with that.

This particular day, Draco came home at around two o'clock with a particularly nasty head ache. He had walked into the parlor groaning, disrupting Hermione from her knitting. The last time she had knit was during Hogwarts when she made clothes for the house elves. Draco stared at her knitting with a look of revolt and fascination before saying, "What exactly is that supposed to be?"

Hermione paused and replied, "It was originally supposed to be a sweater but now, I really have no idea." She was right. You could not tell what it was. Part of what she was knitting had something sticking out on one side but the rest of it was rather long and lanky. Parts of it were also smaller than the rest.

"For once, I agree, Granger," muttered Draco leaning back.

Hermione snorted and said, "That's a shocker." When Draco didn't reply she asked, "Are you alright, Malfoy?"

"Oh yes, I'm positively dandy. What do you think?" he snapped.

"I'd say you got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning," replied Hermione, as her fingers got tangled in the yarn.

"For your information, I have a splitting headache."

"What are you telling me that for? Am I supposed to do something about it?"

"A headache potion would be nice."

"Why didn't you ask one of the healers for one? The wards aren't too far from where you work."

"What are you, my mother?" Draco moaned as a spasm shot through his forehead. "Can you just conjure me a potion?"

"Can't you do it yourself? If you can't see, I'm currently in a err...situation here." Hermione's hands were both helplessly tangled in the yarn. She was unable to get it off.

"I can't conjure with a headache. It requires a lot of concentration."

Hermione scowled at him and somehow managed to pull out her wand despite her tangled hands. She muttered something under her breath and a bottle with a greenish black liquid zoomed into the room. Draco caught it and downed the whole thing in one gulp. He set it on the couch where it vanished with a pop. Stretching his arms out, he said, "Much better."

"Oh darn," muttered Hermione.

"Save your sarcasm for another day, Granger," said Draco standing up. "We have some work to do."

"We?" asked Hermione raising an eyebrow. She put down her knitting and turned towards him.

"Yes, we have some work to do. I refuse to do triple the amount of work that I normally do without your help."

"Triple the work?"

"I have your work to do as well," replied Draco turning to face her with disgust on his face.

Hermione sighed and replied, "I always did pity the person who would get my work when I was gone…now, I'm not so sure about that."

Draco looked at her with disbelief before asking, "Are…are you alright?"

Hermione arched her eyebrow at him before saying, "I'm fine. I've just been thinking."

Draco rolled his eyes and replied, "That's never a good thing."

"You be quiet!" snapped Hermione. "There's nothing else to do in this house besides think." She let out a growl and threw her knitting beside her. "I get so sick and tired of being cooped up in here."

Draco regarded her warily for a moment before saying quietly, "Where would you like to go?"

"Outside!" she groaned. "Your mother has put me under house arrest for some unknown reason."

Draco looked at her with puzzlement before replying meekly, "Err…perhaps I could get her to let you out for today?"

Hermione sat up and said, "That would be great. Go do it, Malfoy and don't come back here till you have!"

Draco slowly backed out of the parlor and closed the doors. Muttering to himself about how rude she was, he went to find his mother. It was only when he had found his mother did he realize that she never agreed to help him with his work.

About an hour later, Draco came back with a scowl on his face. He opened up the door to the parlor where he saw Hermione knitting once again. When she didn't acknowledge him, he cleared his throat. When she didn't answer him, he cleared his throat once again.

"Do you need a cough drop? If you do then I suggest you visit Umbridge at the ministry. She has plenty of them, Malfoy." Hermione let a graceful smirk cross her face before turning her head away from her knitting.

"That was not funny, Granger," replied Draco sourly. "Anyways, I talked to mother and she said that you can go out today but-

"But?" asked Hermione placing her knitting in her lap.

"We have to be together."

"Really?"

Draco nodded then mentally slapped himself for forgetting that she couldn't see him. "Yes."

Hermione jutted her lower lip out then after a few seconds said, "Well, I suppose it's better than nothing."

Draco looked at her intriguingly before shaking his head. "Where do you want to go?"

Hermione tilted her head sideways, her face lighting up. Draco's eyes widened as he said, "No, there is no way in hell that I'll ever see one of those muggle pictures again, somewhere else, Granger."

Hermione scowled at the blond before going back to thinking. Finally, she thought of something but she wasn't sure whether it would be such a good idea. "Well, I don't know if you'll want to come but I haven't visited my parents in a while and…"

"Your parents' house, that's it?" asked Draco.

"Yeah, I haven't been home in a while. I've talked to thema while ago but that's about it." Hermione twisted a piece of her hair around her finger before asking, "Can I go there? You don't have to go if you don't want to and if your mother gets mad, I'll say that it's my fault."

"Granger, it's alright, I'll take you," replied Draco running his fingers through his hair. He looked at her and felt himself smile for some odd reason. He had been doing that a lot lately. Every time he looked at her he smiled. It wasn't a cold stare like he normally did. It was a genuine smile. It was odd. She looked worried for some reason though,almost nervous. "Is something wrong?"

"You could say that." Hermione laughed nervously and said, "My parents, they…they don't know that I'm blind." Draco stared at her for a moment before letting a small chuckle escape his lips. A small tinge of pink appeared on Hermione cheeks. "It's not funny, Malfoy."

"Sure it is, Granger," he snickered. "I never thought I'd see the day that you lied to your parents."

"It's not lying if they don't ask," Hermione replied standing up. "Now are we going or not?"

Draco shook his head at her and smiled once again. It was odd.

About half an hour later, Hermione and Draco found themselves outside a very normal looking yellow two story house with a white picket fence. There was a small apple tree in the front yard with a swing dangling off of it. To Draco, it screamed muggles while to Hermione it was just home.

"Is this your house?"

"Is this 1456 Marble Drive?" asked Hermione.

"Yes but…"

"Then it is my house. Would you mind getting me through the gate?" Draco took Hermione's arm while staring at her house and led her through the gate, up the steps, and onto the porch. Right when Draco was about to ring the doorbell, Hermione said, "Wait."

"What?"

"Do you…do you think they'll be disappointed in me?"

Draco looked at her with confusion and said, "Disappointed? About what?"

"You know, I failed at my job, now I'm blind."

Draco snorted and replied, "Well, I don't know about that but they might be upset at you for not telling them."

"Really?" asked Hermione clutching his arm.

He pried her arm off his and replied, "I wouldn't know. My parents never really cared." Draco pushed the doorbell and a few seconds later, the door opened. His eyes met brown eyes much darker than Hermione's belonging to a woman about as tall as Hermione. She had light brown hair that was frizzy with bits of gray in it. Draco also noticed that her teeth were extremely straight and white.

The woman's eyes widened as she saw Hermione. She immediately wrapped her arms around her and said, "Hermione…your father and I haven't seen you for such a long time dear. We've been very worried about you."

Hermione patted her mother on the back while Draco stood awkwardly next to them. Mrs. Granger pulled out of the hug and kissed her daughter's forehead. She smiled then turned to Draco. "Who is this, dear?"

Draco stuck his hand out and mumbled, "Draco Malfoy."

Mrs. Granger's smile faded a bit as she took his hand. "Malfoy, you say? You wouldn't happen to be the same one Hermione always complains about, would you?"

"Er…that would be me," replied Draco uneasily as his grey eyes locked with hers.

She pulled her eyes away from his and turned back to Hermione. "Well, why don't the both of you come in?" Mrs. Granger walked inside leaving Draco and Hermione outside.

"She hasn't noticed," mumbled Hermione softly.

"I know," he replied. Taking her arm, the two of them went inside.

Once they were inside, Draco noticed that it was very warm. Pictures of their family lined the wall along with many certificates of achievement all belonging to Hermione. Draco would never be able to get over the fact that none of the pictures moved.

The two of them followed Hermione's mother into a rather cozy room done up in beige and maroon. Draco helped Hermione sit down then sat down next to her. He could feel Mrs. Granger's eyes following his every move. It made him wonder what Hermione had told her about him.

Mrs. Granger sat on the couch in front of the two and looked at him with narrowed eyes. As she looked at Hermione, her gaze softened. "Hermione, how have you been?"

"Fine, I suppose." Draco nudged Hermione softly and she scowled. "Actually, I-I have something to tell you." She took a deep breath and said, "I thought you would have already figured it out by now but-

"Don't tell me that…" Mrs. Granger looked at the two of them with disappointment. She stood up and said, "I need to call your father." She raced out of the room leaving the two of them alone.

Hermione groaned and shook her head. "She never lets me talk. She always assumes things before I even tell her anything."

"She still hasn't noticed then?"

"No she hasn't," snapped Hermione. "She probably thinks that I've married you or something odd like that."

Draco's face paled a bit. "Married?" he choked out.

"Well, that's what I would assume. I mean, I haven't seen them for about five months and when I finally visit them, I'm here with you." Hermione ran a hand through her hair.

"I guess…that's logical but you and me? Besides, I'm sure that you've told them how much we hate each other so why would they think that we…"

"Honestly, Malfoy, I have no idea." Hermione sat up as she heard both her parents walk into the room.

Draco's eyes widened as he saw her father. He had perfect white teeth like her mother and he was extremely tall. He had dark brown hair that was slightly wavy and Draco could feel an air of authority radiating off of him. He immediately walked towards Hermione and gave her a hug. He turned to Draco and stuck out his hand. "Frank Granger…"

"Draco Malfoy," replied Draco carefully taking the man's hand.

Frank nodded and took a seat next to his wife who had a look of disappointment on her face. "So," began Frank. "When did the two of you…"

"What makes you think we're married, Dad?" asked Hermione coldly. Draco patted her arm comfortingly and Hermione mumbled a quiet "sorry".

"We don't see you for five months and you come home with a boy. What are we supposed to think, dear?" Frank asked.

"That's exactly what you said," mumbled Draco to Hermione.

"I know my parents very well, Malfoy," she replied. She turned to her father and said, "When I said that I had something to tell mother, it wasn't that I got married because I would never get married without telling the two of you."

Hermione's mother stood up and said, "Then why didn't you call us? You know that we have no way of reaching you in the wizarding world, Hermione."

"There's no telephone where I'm staying."

"What do you mean no telephone? You have one in almost every room in your apartment."

"I'm not staying in my apartment," said Hermione raising her voice.

"What do you mean not staying in your apartment?" asked her father. His eyes widened as he said, "You haven't been evicted, have you?"

"Oh, Hermione, that's horrible! Why didn't you tell us? You could have lived here till you found another place to stay," said Mrs. Granger.

"I have not been evicted from my apartment," muttered Hermione through clenched teeth. Draco let out a short chuckle causing Hermione to scowl.

"Then why aren't you staying there?"

"She's living with me and my mother," interjected Draco pulling Hermione back down onto the couch.

Frank raised an eyebrow and said, "At your house?" He and his wife exchanged a glance. "Are you two dating?"

Draco's jaw dropped. Her parents were impossible. He would have run away as a child if he had to live with parents like these. "We-we're not dating."

"Then why is she staying at your house?"

"May I please say something?" yelled Hermione causing the other three to jump. "Firstly, let's get something straight. Malfoy and I are not romantically involved with each other in any way, alright?" Draco smiled as her cheeks turned a pink. She looked very funny. Hermione picked up her cane and brandished it in front of her. "Secondly, what I've been trying to tell you this whole time is that I am blind."

Hermione's parents stood up and gazed at her horrified. "Blind, dear?" asked Mrs. Granger softly. "Blind?"

"Yes, I was injured while on assignment with Malfoy. He took me to the hospital and the healers decided that it would be better if I stayed at his manor then at my apartment."

"What's wrong with here?" asked Frank a bit offended.

"Erm…that's a bit complicated."

"Really? Explain it to us then," snapped Mrs. Granger, clearly hurt by her daughter's statement.

Hermione frowned at her mother and shook her head. "I don't think I will."

"And why not?" her mother asked.

"I refuse to talk to someone who isn't even willing to listen to anything I say." With that, Hermione turned her nose up and sat down on the couch.

Draco touched her arm and whispered, "What are you doing? They want you to tell them, Granger."

"Well, I don't want to tell them," she muttered. "You can tell them if you want to though."

Draco rolled his eyes and looked back at the Grangers who were watching the two with looks of intrigue. Mr. Granger in particular was looking at them with narrowed eyes. "Sir?"

"Are you sure that you are not in any wayromantically involved with my daughter?"

Draco frowned and said, "I am not dating Gra-Hermione." Draco turned to Hermione whose face had turned a shade of red and smirked. He turned back to her parents and said, "Hermione is staying with me and my mother because the healers felt that it would be better for her safety. As an Auror, you make many enemies and as a result, people will try and kill you if you are not on your guard. A blind witch alone is easy prey for anyone. She could have stayed here but then you would needs wards put around your house and that would take a while…" Draco's grey eyes locked with Hermione's blank eyes and he continued. "My manor has had protective wards on it for centuries and as all of her close friends are out of the country, I was the only one left. Rest assured my mother is taking very good care of her."

"We can see that," snapped Mrs. Granger. "But why didn't you tell us, Hermione?"

"I don't know. I thought you'd be disappointed."

"For what?" asked her father. "Disappointed because you became blind?"

"Yes!" said Hermione with a flustered look.

"Hermione, we would never be disappointed in you for something like that. We just wish that you would have told us."

Hermione dropped her head and mumbled, "Sorry."

The Grangers both got up from the couch and gave Hermione a hug, which she gladly returned. Draco on the other hand was a bit uncomfortable. He was not a person for emotional reunions like these. In fact, he preferred to stay as far away from them as he could. He couldn't very well leave her alone here though. She wouldn't even be able to get back to the manor.

After what seemed like an eternity, the family stopped hugging. Hermione was smiling brilliantly while he parents looked at her with equally brilliant smiles. Hermione's mother took Hermione's hand and pulled her up. "Come dear, you must be hungry."

Draco watched as the two of them left for the kitchen. He looked away from them and saw Mr. Granger looking at him with gratitude.

"Mr. Malfoy, we have heard many things about you. Mostly bad things but there were some good things." Mr. Granger looked at Draco for a second before smiling. "Thank you for looking after our daughter. You are forever welcome here." Clapping Draco on the shoulder, he said, "Come to the kitchen, Anna just finished making a delicious apple pie."

Draco got up from the couch and followed the man thinking to himself the whole time about how absurd Hermione's family was. Secretly a part of him wished that his family could have been like this. Life would have been much easier.

* * *

It was about ten thirty at night and Draco and Hermione were in Draco's study. Narcissa had gone to sleep a long time ago and had insisted that if Draco was going to be up late then he should have some company. Hermione really didn't mind after all, Draco did take her to see her parents. The least she could do was stay with him. Unfortunately, she had fallen asleep leaving Draco to work quietly. He didn't mind. He welcomed the silence.

After silently putting away his papers in his desk, he looked over at Hermione who was sleeping haphazardly on the sofa. She had one arm draped across the pillow that was on top of her and her hair had fallen into her face. Her other arm was touching the ground and her head was on the arm of the sofa.

Draco rolled his eyes as he got up from his chair. Looking down at her, he noticed that she didn't look half bad despite the state she was in. In fact she looked pretty. He immediately frowned when he realized what he had been thinking.

He took her hand which was touching the ground andshook it. "Granger," he said softly.

Hermione slowly opened her eyes and sat up. She pushed her hair out of her face and asked, "Is something wrong?"

Draco pulled her off the couch and into a standing position and said, "No, nothing's wrong. I'm finished with my work so I thought I'd wake you."

"Oh," she replied with a smile. "You could have left me here. I was perfectly fine."

Draco chuckled and said, "Mother would have killed me if I had done that." Handing Hermione her cane, he said, "I'll take you to your room." He took Hermione's arm in his and led her out of the study. The two walked in complete silence towards her room, Hermione with her blank eyes and Draco's grey ones fixed on her.

Once he reached her room, he opened her door and said, "Goodnight, Granger."

"Goodnight, Malfoy." As Draco turned to go, Hermione remembered something. "Wait, don't leave yet!"

Draco turned around and came back to her. "What?"

Hermione hesitantly lifted her hand up. Draco shivered as her cold fingers brushed the side of his face. "Thank you, Malfoy."

"For what?" he asked, his grey eyes piercing hers.

She rested her hand on his cheek and said, "For taking me to my parents' house."

"It's nothing big, Granger. I'm sure your precious Potter and Weasley would have taken you as well."

"No, they wouldn't have. They are far too busy with other things these days and its just not the same anymore."

Draco smirked at her and said, "So I am better at Potter in something."

Hermione smiled and whispered, "So you are."

Draco took his hand up to hers which was still on his cheek and squeezed it reassuringly. He brought her hand down and turning on his heel, he walked away, leaving Hermione leaning on her door frame.


	9. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer- I do not own Harry Potter or any of its characters. They are all owned by J. K. Rowling but I do own those characters, which you don't recognize.

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**

Gossip. That is what the life of a housewife entailed. That is all you would hear, that is all you would speak, and that is all you would breathe. It was what got you through the day when there was nothing else to do.

As a pureblood, a woman went to school, got married, had children, and sat at home doing nothing. House elves did all your work for you. At least this was the life of Narcissa Malfoy. Hermione admired the woman in some aspects. She could tell that Narcissa was very clever. It was almost invisible but she could still see it. Narcissa was no stupid person and it must have pained her quite a bit to put away her studies and become the devoted wife of Lucius Malfoy. It was admirable though. She did it all to please her family.

Hermione didn't really mind listening to the woman's gossip. In fact, half of the information would be useful for potential black mail...that is if she ever planned on blackmailing anyone. She didn't really care that Pansy Parkinson's mother had been seen whispering in the ear of Theodore Nott's father. She didn't see what was wrong with that at all.

But what she did not like was when Narcissa suddenly said, "Well, I suppose you've heard enough from me today. I don't think I've ever heard you say something about anyone else."

Hermione froze for a moment before asking, "What?"

"Close your mouth dear, it is terribly unattractive." Narcissa smoothed down her hair before a devilish grin appeared on her face. "Come now, Hermione, there must have been some gossip floating around that you've heard recently."

"I...I don't gossip."

Narcissa let out a laugh that caused chills to go through Hermione. "What do you mean you don't gossip? Everyone gossips whether they realize it or not. In fact just talking about a person when they're not around is gossip in a sense."

Hermione let a frown cross her face for a brief second before sighing. Narcissa was exactly like Lavender and Parvati in that she was stubborn for information. "Err...well, when I was in the Auror department a few months ago, there was a rumor that our boss was secretly ordering-

"No, not gossip like that, Hermione. I could care less about what your boss eats. I want something juicy. Not something made up either." Narcissa's blue eyes flashed and a strange look appeared on her face. "What have you heard recently? I'm dying to know."

Hermione frowned once again and said, "Honestly? I haven't heard anything recently. Well, I did hear one thing from Charles but it didn't strike me as important."

"From Charles?" asked Narcissa. "Charles who?" Her eyes widened suddenly and she quickly took Hermione's hand. "Tell me what he said." When Hermione didn't answer, she said a little harsher, "Tell me!"

Hermione jerked her hand from the other woman's and said, "He said something about the papers in America writing articles about seeing Draco with me."

Out of nowhere, a bell rang throughout the Malfoy manor. It chimed three times and no more. "Oh hell," muttered Narcissa, shaking her head. "That must be him."

"Him?" asked Hermione, grasping her cane as Narcissa pulled her up.

"Charles," muttered the older woman. "What has he done now?" Grabbing Hermione by the hand she said, "Come, the blue study."

"He's arrived by floo? But I thought..."

"All family," muttered Narcissa, her blue eyes swirling with anger, "even family that doesn't deserver to step foot in this manor."

Narcissa thrust open the door to the blue study with a bang just in time to see Charles stumble through the fireplace with a large suitcase in his hand. He caught himself just in time and placed the suitcase on the floor. Rubbing his hands together, he looked up cheerfully at his aunt and bow slightly. "Good afternoon, Aunt!" His black hair fell gracefully to the side of his face and his blue eyes were fixed on Narcissa. "I trust Draco told you that I might drop in sometime."

"Americans wizards," muttered Narcissa to Hermione. "They act like they own the world." She turned back to Charles and snarled, "What are you doing here? Haven't your parents ever told you that they are not welcome in this house?"

Charles laughed loudly and said, "They aren't welcome. I'm perfectly welcome, if I do say so myself." His cheerful blue eyes locked with a pair of angry blue ones. He was forced to drop his once he realized that he would not win against his aunt. Jutting out his lower jaw, he said carefully, "Alright well, here's the deal." He ran a hand through his hair and said, "My parents got wind that I had a chat with Draco and they're not very happy about it." He smiled coldly and said, "Let's just say that home is not a very happy place right now."

"So you're running from them like a coward?" piped in Hermione.

Charles's eyes snapped from his aunt to the brunette standing beside her. Hermione could feel his penetrating stare upon her but she stood her ground and held onto her black cane.

"Ms. Granger, I had no idea that you would be here today." Charles swiftly walked up to Hermione and grabbed her hand. He placed a kiss on it, staring into her glassy eyes. She was even more beautiful than the last time he saw her. Some would call him crazy but he knew he was not. There was something different about her. It made him go mad even though he didn't even know her.

Hermione let a small smile fleet across her face before snatching her hand away and saying, "Well now you know."

Charles looked down at the brunette completely ignoring his aunt and said, "How long are you planning on staying here today?"

Hermione raised an eyebrow as Narcissa let out a laugh. "Surely you know nephew, that Hermione is living with us?"

Charles was taken aback for a moment. He stared at the two women in front of him in utter confusion. Suddenly, it dawned upon him. He had read something about an accident in the Auror department in England. There had been an accident in which an auror had been blinded but he had brushed it off as nothing important as there were always accidents in the American ministry. He looked at Hermione and was not able to utter a single word. Finally, after a few minutes of consideration he said, "You're an Auror?"

Hermione merely nodded and gripped her cane tighter. Narcissa saw this and fixed her gaze on her nephew. "How long will you be staying, Charles?"

Charles looked at Hermione once more before turning back to his aunt. "Until it's safe for me to go home, I guess."

Narcissa turned her nose up at her nephew clearly telling him what she thought of him. With an exasperated sigh, Narcissa clicked her tongue and immediately a house elf appeared. "Take Charles's bag away to the east wing." The elf nodded and snapped its fingers causing the bags to disappear. The elf bowed to Narcissa and disappeared shortly after with a pop.

Narcissa placed a hand on her forehead and shook her head. "Oh hell," she muttered. She placed her other arm on Hermione's and said, "Show Charles around the manor. I have a few things to take care of. Narcissa pulled out her wand and with a wave, a small black purse appeared in her hand. Stepping away from Hermione and Charles, she walked towards the fireplace and threw a hand full of flew powder into it. "If Draco comes home, tell him that I've gone out." With that, she yelled something incomprehensible and disappeared into the fireplace.

Hermione shook her head and muttered, "Such a lovely woman."

"I quite agree," replied Charles, startling Hermione who had managed to forget that he was waiting for her to show him around.

She didn't want to show him around truth be told. She really wanted to sleep or eat a piece of cake at the moment. She had better things to be doing than giving a tour of someone else's house. "Do you really want a tour?"

"Of course I do," he replied linking his arm with Hermione's. His touch sent unusual tingles up Hermione's arm. She did not have the faintest idea why.

Entangling her arm from his she said, "I need both my arms, thank you."

Charles laughed causing Hermione to raise an eyebrow. He took her hand and kissed it. "Whatever you say, Hermione."

She rolled her eyes and walked out of the study with him following her.

An hour passed very slowly for Hermione. Every room she went, he stayed for at least fifteen minutes to admire every single piece of art there was. As a result, they hadn't even left the corridor with the blue study. As Hermione was getting ready to show him another room, Charles placed a hand upon her arm and said, "Is there a backyard or anything? I need some fresh air."

Hermione almost laughed at him. "A backyard? There's a garden. We could go there if you'd like."

"Perfect," whispered Charles into her ear causing her to frown slightly. "Why don't you take me?"

Hermione stepped back uncertainly. "Are you feeling alright?"

Charles smirked at the girl relishing the fact that she couldn't see him. "Of course I am. I just love fresh air."

Hermione nodded and motioned for him to follow her. It bothered her though, the way he had asked her to take him outside. His breath had tickled the inside of her ear and funnily enough, Hermione had liked it. She didn't want to though. She didn't want to like him at all. He did something to her. It made her feel very uncomfortable.

Hermione pushed open the doors that led to the garden and tapped her way down the stairs and onto the stone pathway. Charles followed behind her closing his eyes to inhale the scent of the roses that lined the path.

"And here we have the garden," said Hermione softly. Charles smirked at her and walked over to a rose bush. "I wouldn't pick any of them if I were you."

Charles looked at her astonished. "How did you…"

"I know, believe me. But don't worry, I'm only saying that I wouldn't." Hermione smiled serenely as the wind brushed past her face.

Charles watched her, his eyes never leaving her face. Slowly, he snapped a red rose off of the bush and walked over to her.

"A lovely rose for a lovely woman," he said pressing the rose into her hand.

Hermione slowly grasped the stem wincing slightly as the thorns dug into her palm. "Do you have any idea how unoriginal that was?" She brought it up to her nose to smell it and smiled.

Charles looked at her, wondering how someone as beautiful as her could not be pureblood. He had never seen anything like her. She was an enigma and it delighted him. That was probably what caused him to seize her face in both his hands and plant his lips on hers.

The kiss was rather nice but as soon as Hermione got her senses back, she shoved him away, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.

"What the hell was that?" she asked frowning at him.

Charles brushed his hair out of his eyes and said, "A kiss."

"I know that! But I-I don't even know you! You can't just kiss me like that!" Hermione shrieked as she stepped back from him. A smirk appeared on his face.

"Well, that's the fun of it," he replied stepping forward. He snaked his arm around her waist and pulled her to him. "There's something about you that makes me want to tear my hair out, Hermione." She shivered as he whispered into her ear.

"Well, I can't say the same about you," she muttered, ignoring the feeling of butterflies in her stomach.

Charles looked down at her, tracing the side of her face with his finger. He smirked slightly as she leaned into his touch. He brought his face down to hers and whispered, "Are you sure about that?" When Hermione didn't reply, he crashed his lips down upon hers once again.

Hermione was ready this time. Immediately, she brought her foot down on his and rammed her cane into his stomach. Shoving him away from her, she hissed, "I may be blind, but I'm not an auror for nothing."

"I can see that," replied Charles clutching his stomach. He looked back up at her, desire not gone from his eyes.

"You bet you can," she spat. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have better things to do than show you around this place. Find your own way back inside." Her face, extremely white, Hermione spun around on her heel, her cane clacking as she walked up the stone pathway.

Without warning, Charles caught her arm and said, "You're not leaving." There was a gleam in his eyes that seemed almost desperate.

"Let go of my arm!" Hermione's mouth was set into a grim line as she said it.

"You're overreacting, Hermione," said Charles soothingly.

"Let go of my arm!" she shrieked.

"I don't think so," replied Charles, pulling her closer to him. Just as he almost had her, a voice from the steps of the garden came.

"Is there a problem here?" Draco stepped down the stairs and surveyed the scene, his eyes growing cold as he looked upon his cousin.

Charles let go of Hermione who stumbled slightly. He shook his head and said, "Nope, no problem."

Hermione tapped her way over to Draco, breathing hard. "Thank you," she whispered to him. She shook her head and continued inside.

Draco merely nodded and said, "I hope you're not lying Charles."

Charles smirked at his cousin and said, "Why would I lie?"

The two cousins gazed coldly at each other before Draco finally turned and strode into the house, his robes billowing behind him.

As Charles watched him go, he realized that without the two of them, he was completely and hopelessly lost.

Draco shut the door behind him and immediately saw Hermione sitting on a chair that was near the door. He sat across from her and said, "Well, Granger?"

"Well?" she spat.

Draco glared at her and said, "What happened?"

"Your cousin Charles happened, that's what," she hissed. "Your mother decides to leave and makes me show him around the house and all of a sudden he's kissing me as though he's known me my entire life! That's what!"

"He what?" asked Draco, his face draining of all color. He wasn't too sure why it was affecting him so much to hear her say that. His dislike for Charles was a possible factor but it wasn't just that. It was like…possessiveness possibly.

"He…kissed me, that's what." Hermione let a small smile cross her face. She shook her head and said, "I can't believe I'm talking to you about kissing." She scowled and said, "He had no right though."

"He didn't," muttered Draco without realizing it.

"He took complete advantage of me," she exclaimed. Hermione's face was now white with rage. "Complete advantage of me…"

Draco watched as her glassy eyes darkened. He realized what she was going to say and murmured, "Granger…"

"Don't say that I'm not worthless because I am!" she bellowed. "I can't even fend for myself when it comes to something as pathetic as this and don't you dare say that I have low self esteem because I don't!" Hermione pushed her hair out of her face and continued, "This stupid blindness…why can't those damn healers just find a stupid cure? It's my eyes for god sakes and I-

"Granger! Would you shut up for a moment?" Draco got out of his chair and kneeled in front of her. He took her hands in his and said, "This is not only about you. The world does not revolve around like you think it does. Now I'll admit, St. Mungo's is not the best hospital in the world but they're trying." Draco's eyes bore into hers as she looked ahead with a defeated look. "Have hope. At least I stopped Charles before he got anywhere."

"But that's the thing, Malfoy, before he got anywhere." Hermione shook her head and said, "He's living here for a while."

Draco stared at her. "You're joking."

"No, I'm not. He brought a suitcase, I think."

Draco rubbed his forehead and with a tired look said, "That's great…"

Hermione chuckled and said, "God, he's a jerk."

Draco rolled his eyes and stood up. "You'll be alright by yourself?"

"I'm fine Malfoy," she snapped. She stood up and pulled her robes around herself tighter. Picking up her cane, she said, "Did I tell you that your mother left?"

Draco raised an eyebrow and said, "Yes…"

"Well, it seemed that she was more worried about Charles's arrival than angry," continued Hermione.

"My mother is a rather paranoid woman, Granger," countered Draco, looking at her with a smirk on his face. "She _sees_, remember? her visions?"

"Oh, I forgot about that…" Hermione's mouth parted slightly as she said, "Do you think…"

"…Charles has anything to do with what she saw before?" Draco looked at Hermione with a grim expression and nodded. "I have no doubt about it." Draco smirked slightly and said, "I suppose I should feel bad for asking you but keep an eye or…rather be wary of him. Make sure you know what he's doing at all times." Draco drew closer to Hermione and said, "Keep your wand with you as well. I'll get it away from mother somehow…I won't always be there to save you."

Hermione frowned slightly and said, "I wasn't expecting you to."

Draco frowned back at her and said, "If I hadn't gotten you back there, you would have been in a load of trouble."

"Well, I'm not. Besides, I already thanked you for that." Hermione twirled her cane in her hand almost poking Draco. "Don't expect it to happen again."

Draco shook his head and looked insolently at the girl. She was one of the most unusual people he had ever met in his life. Despite that, he enjoyed her company. She had the capability of holding an intelligent conversation with him which was rare in Draco's opinion. Half of the time, he was bored whenever he talked to someone. She was something unique…

Thinking of what she just said, he grinned and said, "And if it did happen again?"

"It won't," muttered Hermione smiling a horribly sweet smile at him. "I can ensure you."

Draco shook his head and said, "On second thoughts, I think I'll take you back to your room myself."

"For what? I'm not sick."

"Oh, I think you are, Granger," replied Draco deftly taking her arm and leading her towards her room.

* * *

Narcissa Malfoy stood in her sister Andromeda's house gazing out of a window at Andromeda's two grandchildren who were playing in the yard. Narcissa could see her sister's daughter, Nymphadora sitting on the grass next to her husband. She shuddered as she thought of the man. He was a werewolf. How they had been able to have children was a mystery to Narcissa. 

She turned as she heard the door behind her open. Andromeda Tonks walked in, her brown hair, streaked with silver, shining regally. She was holding a tray with two cups on it.

"Tea, Narcissa?" The woman held out the tray to her younger sister who elegantly removed one of the cups.

"Thank you." Narcissa took a sip of the tea and found it to be rather nice.

"Do you like it?" asked Andromeda. When Narcissa nodded, the woman smiled and said, "What brings you here of all places?"

"Can't I visit my sister once in a while?" asked Narcissa looking slyly at her sister.

Andromeda rubbed her chin thoughtfully and said, "Now let's see, I don't get a visit from you for over thirty years and you expect me to believe that you've suddenly dropped by for a visit? I know you better than that." Andromeda narrowed her eyes at her sister and said, "What do you want?"

Narcissa sighed and set her cup down on the small table next to her. "I had a vision."

Andromeda promptly dropped her cup of tea onto the floor. A house elf appeared moments later and cleared it up. Andromeda looked at her sister with wide eyes and said, "You still get them after all these years?"

"Yes…they're mostly pleasant but not this time."

"I see…" Andromeda stood up and gestured for Narcissa to follow her. "These walls are not safe. Come."

Narcissa followed her sister out of the room taking one last look out of the window as she left. The two of them walked down to the kitchen where Andromeda opened up the pantry. Looking around, she closed the door and pulled out her wand. She tapped it on the floor and out of nowhere, a tiny brass handle appeared.

"Help me pull it?" asked Andromeda. Narcissa glared at her sister rudely before pulling on the handle. The floor opened up revealing a narrow stone staircase that led straight into the ground.

"What is this?"

"Ted made it right when we bought the house." Andromeda tucked her wand into her robes and said, "Go on, I'll come after you."

Narcissa rolled her eyes at her sister and dolefully went down the staircase. It was rather drafty but smelled decent. It seemed endless though for the more stairs that she traveled, the more stairs appeared.

"Just a bit more to go," called Andromeda.

Narcissa sighed as the staircase ended revealing a room clothed completely in blue and black. There was an armoire, a bed, and a table. She watched as her sister's brown eyes sparkled with excitement. Andromeda seemed right at home in this room. She glided towards the back of the room in such an elegant manner that Narcissa felt almost ashamed of the way she walked. The darkness caused her skin to appear rather pale but extraordinarily radiant.

"What is this place, Andy?" asked Narcissa, her eyes never leaving her sister's form.

Andromeda rose an eyebrow upon hearing her sister call her by her old nickname. "It's just a basement…a safe room rather. Why?"

"You look different. Younger would be a better word," replied Narcissa hesitantly. At the moment, she felt very foolish. She felt like a child in the presence of her sister. Narcissa felt very out of place and it scared her for it meant that she wasn't in control of her surroundings.

Andromeda chuckled. "Ted always said I looked different down here." She gestured for Narcissa to take a seat at the table. Once they were both seated, she said, "Tell me about your vision."

Narcissa frowned and said, "I can't really explain it. I see it but when I try to explain it, I just…"

"You remember them though?"

"Of course," replied Narcissa. "I'm not a seer."

"That's what made me wonder in the first place," murmured Andromeda. Her brown eyes narrowed with concentration. "I was going to ask father about my theory before I married Ted but I never got the chance." Andromeda looked at Narcissa and said, "Have you ever tried to remove the vision from your head and put it in a pensieve?"

"Of course I have," snapped Narcissa, her blue eyes gleaming.

"That's what I thought. Then I remembered something. It's nothing big really and I'm surprised that you haven't already thought of it."

"What is it?"

"Transfer it to someone else. Let another person see it. That way it becomes a memory in the other person's head."

"That doesn't make any sense," exclaimed Narcissa.

"It makes perfect sense," replied Andromeda sharply. She whipped out her wand and said, "Play the vision in your head."

"How will you get it?"

"I know Legimency and Occlumancy, sister dear. I'm not as stupid as the lot of you thought I was." Andromeda smirked at her sister who had the grace to look abashed.

Narcissa looked at her sister for a moment and closed her eyes. Immediately, she saw the vision playing out in her head. Every second of it was so vivid that she felt as though she was standing there. Out of nowhere, she felt a faint itch in her head but as quickly as it had come, it was gone. She opened her eyes and saw Andromeda looking at her with wide eyes.

"Did you see it?"

Andromeda nodded mutely before saying, "Do…do your visions always come true?"

"Most of the time."

Andromeda nodded and looked at the table. "The dark haired boy, he's Ruin's son isn't he?"

"I'm surprised you remembered what he looks like."

"And…" she breathed in sharply not even able to say the name. "How is he alive?" Narcissa shrugged in reply.

"We have to stop it from happening, Narcissa."

Narcissa stood up and said, "I can't. We can't."

"Why not?" demanded Andromeda. "We know what's going to happen. We can stop it."

"We don't know when it's going to happen." The desperation was evident in Narcissa's voice. She grabbed his sister's hand and squeezed it. "I will not let this happen to my son. He's been through too much already." Andromeda nodded understandingly. "And Hermione, she's a wonderful girl and you saw what's going to happen to her." Andromeda nodded mutely and looked at her sister's eyes, which were brimming with tears.

Andromeda looked away from her sister with a dark gaze. She held knowledge in the palm of her hand that no one would ever know about. She could not even tell anyone about it because no one would believe her.

She looked back at her sister wondering how she had been able to put up with this gift, you could call it, for all these years. She pitied her sister for it. Shaking her head, she said, "Why did you tell me of all people?"

Narcissa looked back at her sister with an ashamed gaze. She leaned towards her sister and said in a low voice, "You are the only person I can trust at the moment, Andy. I don't have anyone else."

Andromeda's eyes widened out of shock. She took her sister's hand in hers and said, "I promise you that I will do anything I can to ensure that nothing happens to either of them."

Narcissa squeezed Andromeda's hand and nodded. The two sisters looked at each other neither realizing that what they had seen had far worse consequences than either of them could ever imagine.


	10. Chapter 9

**Another chapter to read and as always I am very sorry for not updating sooner. I have family staying at my house and I've had no time to write. On a lighter note, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!**

**Disclaimer- I do not own Harry Potter or any of its characters. They are all owned by J. K. Rowling but I do own those characters, which you don't recognize.

* * *

**  
Hermione placed herself on a couch in the east wing study and sighed. Placing her cane carefully on the floor in a position that she would be able to reach, she leaned back and rubbed her forehead. It had been a rather exhausting week. What with Charles always trying to make some sort of move on her, Hermione had no rest at all for she was constantly trying to avoid him. It had been rather hard to do so without Draco around to stop him but for some reason, she found a bit of fun in it.

He was not really a stalker or a person with an odd obsession with her. He was just another one of those annoying sorts of people whom she encountered in her life. She supposed that everyone had a person like Charles. He liked her but she had no interest in him. He pursued her relentlessly, she avoided him generously. It was life.

It was fun for some reason. She felt no loathing towards him like she had towards Draco. Well, her loathing towards Draco had decreased quite a bit but that was beside the point. Hermione would wake up and groan to herself about how she would have to constantly be wary of where she went but she also looked forward to it.

There was also something rather strange about him. Some days, he would seem carefree and jolly and he would do whatever pleased him rather than what was allowed. On others days though, he reminded Hermione of a cold and callous person. He would speak with a monotone voice and say rude things to anyone who dared approach him. She supposed that it was normal behavior for him as he would change his attitude almost every day.

At the moment, Charles was apparently out of the house. That was what she gathered at least. He hadn't cornered her once all day. She liked it. Narcissa was out somewhere as well. Hermione suspected that she was at her sister's house for she was sitting in the dining hall one day when the fireplace made a noise and a woman's voice came asking for Narcissa. Narcissa had rushed into the room and rudely shoved Hermione out of it after muttering, "Andy" under her breath.

Draco was at work as usual. Hermione could only sigh, thinking about it. She longed to go to work again. Though she liked being at home with nothing to do, it got lonely and she couldn't stand it. Draco was the only other person with whom she could have an intelligent conversation. The only time they ever talked anymore was in the night after dinner. He would go into his study and she would go with him and ask him about work. He would tell her not to worry about it as she was till getting paid though she was not working.

He had become softer since she had come to stay with him. Hermione did not want to say protective of her but when it came to Charles, she could detect a sign of possessiveness and maybe even jealousy towards Charles.

Currently, Hermione had a horrible headache that she could not get rid of. One of the house elves had even given her a potion but it was not working at all. She guessed that it probably had something to do with the food she ate this morning. It had tasted a bit funny but it had been made by the house elves so there was nothing much she could say about it.

She felt her eyelids close as pain washed through her head. Hermione sighed and squeezed her eyes shut, willing the pain to go away.

Hermione woke a few minutes later to the ringing of a bell, meaning that someone had come into the manor. She turned over on the couch and let out a small groan as her forehead erupted with pain once again. She rubbed her head and was not at all surprised to find that it was coated with sweat. Letting out a groan, she turned over and tried to get back to sleep.

She wasn't able to however as something prod her on her back. She turned over and frowned. "Malfoy, is that you?"

"Yes, it's me," came the reply. Hermione frowned as she heard him. He sounded as though he had a sore throat. It was a bit peculiar as he had been fine this morning.

"What are you doing back so early?" she mumbled, sitting up.

"I live here, don't I?"

Hermione sighed and said, "Yes but, I thought you said you would only be back late this whole week."

"Mr. Ringler let me out early today. He said I needed some rest."

Hermione knew for a fact that something was not right. Draco would never leave work just because he was tired. He worked until he could do no more.

"Is something wrong, Granger?" he asked.

Hermione shook her head and replied, "No, not at all. Well, I've had a horrible headache this whole day."

"You do look rather pale and sweaty. Have you taken a potion? I thought there were quite a few in the-

"Yes, yes, yes, I have. None of them work."

"Then let me escort you to St. Mungo's."

"What? I'm not that ill." Hermione frowned wondering what the matter with him was.

"It could be a side effect of your...affliction."

Hermione scowled and said, "My affliction?"

"Don't talk, it will only become worse."

Hermione sighed and wobbling slightly, managed to pick up her cane. She grasped his arm for support as a whole wave of nausea overcame her. For some strange reason, she felt him flinch away from her as her grip on his arm tightened.

She stopped and asked, "Are you feeling alright, Malfoy?"

"You are feeling rather warm."

As they entered the blue study, Hermione felt the familiar sensation of dark magic swirl around her. It felt suffocating for some reason though. It seemed as though there was more of it than usual. Before, it was like a constant breeze that flowed smoothly past her. But now, there was so much of it that Hermione was wondering how she could have thought it beautiful before. It must affect sick people, she thought to herself.

"Wait, we should leave a note for your mother that I'll be at St. Mungo's."

"My mother?" he asked. "Oh, mother, right." He conjured a piece of parchment and scribbling something on it, brought Hermione to the fire. Throwing floo powder into it, he murmured something and the two of the disappeared.

It was around ten o'clock at might when Draco finally came home. He had been through quite an exhausting day. As he stepped out of the fireplace, he was almost knocked over by Charles who had run up to him and asked, "Is she alright?"

Draco glared at him and asked, "Is who alright?"

"Hermione, is she better?"

"Hermione, is it? I wasn't aware that you were on a first name basis with her."

Charles smirked at his cousin and replied, "What can I say? Anyways, is she alright?"

"I don't know. I haven't been home all day." Draco brushed past his cousin without a word and stalked out of the room.

He groaned as he heard footsteps behind him. "What do you mean you haven't been here all day?"

Draco whipped around and answered, "I have been at work filling out mounds of paperwork. I have not been home since seven this morning."

"But your mother found a note in your handwriting saying that you had taken Hermione to St. Mungo's because she was feeling sick."

Draco looked at his cousin with contempt and said, "I haven't been home all day, you numskull. I just told you that if you had cared to listen."

"Tell that to your mother." Charles ran a hand through his dark hair nodded towards Narcissa who was walking towards the two of them with a worried look on her face.

"How is she, Draco?"

"Who? Gr- Hermione?"

"Who else?" Narcissa frowned at Draco, waiting for his answer.

"Like I told Charles, I'll tell you. I have not been home this whole day. I did not take Hermione to St. Mungo's at all. I have not even seen her since this morning."

"Are you mad?" demanded Narcissa. "You yourself wrote a note saying that you took her there." Draco looked at her blankly. "Oh come on, you don't expect me to believe you, do you?"

"Shouldn't you? I'm your son."

Narcissa chuckled slightly and replied, "That hardly gives me a reason to believe you."

"When will you stop being so paranoid?" asked Draco shaking his head.

"When you have a gift like I do, there is no reason not to be paranoid!" Narcissa stepped closer to her son. "Now, I want the truth. Did you take Hermione to St. Mungo's?"

"No, I did not." Draco scowled at his mother who looked at him suspiciously.

Without warning, Narcissa's eye suddenly began to glow an eerie shade of blue. "Is there something wrong with her?" asked Charles from next to Draco.

"She's seeing," he muttered. Draco realized who he was talking to and said, "I think it would be best if you stayed clear of us for a while."

"What about Hermione? I care about her too. Probably more than you do…" Charles smirked at Draco, whose mouth took on an ugly sneer.

"You care about her, do you?" The sneer hung about Draco's lips, never wavering. "If you truly care about her, then she wouldn't be gone."

"I could say the same for you, cousin." Charles smirked.

"Well, unlike you, I work. You do nothing."

Charles clutched his chest and with a look of despair said, "That hurt, it really did." He yawned once and said, "I'm not going anywhere."

At that moment, Narcissa's eye returned to normal color. She looked at Draco with a look of confusion and horror on her face. She looked at Charles, her blue eyes never leaving his. Without warning, she had her wand out and a blue light had issued from it causing Charles to be blown backwards into a portrait.

Draco looked at his mother and raised an eyebrow. "Mother?"

"That boy," she said breathing heavily, "has always been trouble and always will be." She straightened herself up and looked at Draco. "Tie him up and bring him to the dungeons, will you?"

Draco narrowed his eyes at his mother. "The…dungeons?" He watched with surprise as a cold, emotionless mask settled on her face. Watching his mother do that was like watching a beautiful piece of art being painted. It was as though it was the most natural thing for her to do in the world.

He watched as his mother glided away, her wand clutched firmly in her hand. Shaking his head, he turned to his cousin who was bleeding slightly. His mother had always been good at knocking people out right when they least expected it. She must have practiced quite a bit in order to do it for as hard as Draco tried, he had never been able to do it with as much stealth as she had. He pulled out his wand and conjured some rope, which he tied around Charles's ankles and wrists. Then, levitating him, Draco strolled to the dungeons.

The dungeons in the Malfoy Manor had last been used by Lucius Malfoy during the war. Lucius had been famous for keeping hundreds of prisoners of the light in them. Not one had ever escaped. The dungeons were full of dark hexes and jinxes that without proper knowledge of the dark arts, any normal wizard wandering about in them was as good as dead.

Draco levitated Charles's body into one of the cells and promptly dropped him. He took Charles's wand and slammed the door to the cell shut. Looking coldly at his cousin, Draco felt an enormous amount of rage rise up in him. Rage for coming into their lives. Rage for ruining the family, which was not at all Charles's fault but Draco did not care. Rage for living…and most importantly, rage for Hermione. Every time he saw him look at Hermione, Draco felt a feeling of sickness rise in his stomach. Charles would give her a gaze of pure lust that never went unnoticed by Draco. He felt that he had to protect Hermione from him. Draco knew he would get her back. It pained him to admit it but he cared for her on some level.

He was snapped out of his thoughts by his mother who had silently come in. She was holding a glass vial about the size of her pinky. Following her was another lady, who was taller then her by about five inches. She had dark brown hair streaked with silver that shined even in the darkness of the dungeons. Her brown eyes showed no emotion as she leaned casually against the stone walls of the dungeon.

Narcissa looked at the extra wand in Draco's hand and said, "Snap it."

Draco smirked and said, "I'll wait till he's awake to-

"Do it now, Draco," the brown haired woman said. Her brown eyes bore into his, commanding him to listen to his mother. He pulled his eyes away from hers and snapped the piece of wood in his hand. Splinters of what had been a tool of magic showered the floor in front of Draco's feet. With a wave of his wand, the wood vanished.

The brown haired woman looked approvingly at Draco before walking towards Narcissa. She whispered something, which Draco could not hear. Narcissa frowned at the woman then nodded. Narcissa dropped the vial in the other woman's hand and stepped back so that she was next to Draco.

"Who is that?" he muttered.

"My sister, Andromeda."

"The blood traitor?" asked Draco, keeping his eyes on Andromeda.

Narcissa scowled at her son and replied, "All offenses against her have been forgiven."

Draco looked at his mother with fascination. Forgiving people was hard for her. It was hard for him. Draco knew for a fact that blood traitors were never forgiven under any circumstances. For example, say the Weasleys did something great for the Malfoys, which Draco knew would never happen in a millions years, they still would never be forgiven because both families had different values that contradicted each other so greatly that peace could never be achieved.

A crack echoed throughout the dungeon. Draco turned to look at Andromeda, his eyes growing wide. Not believing what he was seeing, Draco took a step closer. Andromeda was suspending Charles in midair without her wand. Wandless magic. That took years to learn. No one else Draco knew besides Dumbledore and Voldemort, both of whom were dead, could do wandless magic. Blinking slightly, he took a step closer and saw that, Andromeda's eyes had become solid black. Not even an ounce of white was showing.

Narcissa came and stood by him. "The three of us, Bellatrix, Andromeda, and me, we were all on the receiving end of a gift. A family inheritance, you could say. Tell no one, Draco." Narcissa looked him in the eye. Draco bowed his head slightly with respect.

This was a bit strange to him. All he wanted to do was to find Hermione and have everything go back to how it was. But no, she had to be kidnapped by some deranged wizard who took pleasure in taking away people who weren't even able to put up a fair fight.

Then, there were his mother and aunt's powers. They scared him. To know that his mother and aunts had so much power was not a comforting fact. People would kill to have power like that and people would kill those with power like that. Draco hated it. He hated even more the fact that this power had every right to come forth in him as well.

Draco looked at Charles as a gurgling noise erupted from his mouth. Charles's head fell back, but immediately snapped back up with a crunching sound that sent chills down Draco's spine.

Andromeda's hand lashed out and grabbed Charles's neck. She opened the vial and poured its contents down Charles's throat. Draco could only assume that it was Veritaserum. As soon as all the liquid had gone down Charles's throat, Charles began twitching.

It was horrifying to watch, but Draco said nothing and his face told nothing. One of the most valuable and rewarding things he had learned growing up was to let your face show nothing. Showing emotion was the key to weakness. That was one thing that Draco would never forget.

Charles stopped twitching right after a little bit. His neck rolled backwards with a crack. Andromeda pulled in her fingers slightly causing Charles's head to come back up. Charles's eyes slowly opened and a twisted smile appeared on his face as he lay suspended in the air.

Draco looked at his aunt and saw that her eyes had returned to normal. She carefully set Charles back on the ground and left the cell. "Nasty bit of dark magic that was," she muttered as she stood next to Narcissa.

Narcissa said nothing but patted her sister on her shoulder. She turned back to Charles and asked in a silky tone, "Are you Charles Ignatius Duprés, son of Ruin and Renee Duprés?"

"Yes."

"Why have you come here?"

"On my parents' orders."

"What have they asked you to do?"

"They told me only to stay at the Malfoy Manor till they called me home."

Narcissa remained as composed as ever and asked, "Where is Hermione Granger?"

Charles looked at her oddly before a hearty laugh erupted from his throat. "Hermione Granger?" he croaked. "The mudblood? Well, obviously I don't know." Charles smiled allowing his white teeth to gleam brightly.

"Charles," began Andromeda. Narcissa shot her look of "what are you doing", which she promptly ignored. "Has your...master been telling your parents what to do and say?"

An odd look appeared in Charles's eyes. "The master is too great for anyone to talk about but if you must know, yes, he has."

Andromeda exchanged a quick glance with Narcissa who said, "Tell me more about your master."

"He is the next Dark Lord." That is all Charles said before smiling once again.

"What else?" pressed Andromeda. "What is he like?"

"The master is too great for anyone to talk about."

"Do you value your life, Charles?" cut in Draco. His mother and aunt sent him a look, which he silenced. "Is your dear master more precious than your life?"

Charles's smile faded slightly as he replied, "My master is the most powerful wizard in the world. He will use the weaknesses of others to get what he wants. The ministry is already under his control." Charles coughed. "Hogwarts is almost under his control. Without Dumbledore there to stop him, no one is in his way." Charles erupted into another fit of coughs. "My master has power. He will kill all the weak and spare no one but those deserving to live. My life is nothing compared to his."

"Who is your master?" spat Draco. He narrowed his grey eyes at Charles waiting for an answer.

"My master?" asked Charles. He cackled loudly. "My master? My master is none other than your dear..." Without warning, Charles's eyes began bulging slightly out of his head. His neck snapped backwards as he started choking. The three watched with horror as his body began convoluting in ways not possible for the body to move. He kept twisting and twisting and twisting until all of a sudden, he was gone.

Andromeda was the first one to see what had happened.

"Is he dead?" asked Narcissa.

Andromeda touched the floor where Charles had been sitting and muttered, "Someone summoned him." She looked back at Narcissa and Draco and said, "You know what this means, don't you?"

Narcissa let her head fall into her hands for a second before taking a deep breath. "We're all being watched."

Draco looked at his mother with confusion before asking, "How?"

Narcissa looked at him coldly. Draco knew it was just her way of hiding emotions but there was a part of him that wanted his mother to comfort him and tell him that she would fix it, as juvenile as it sounded.

"I've let my-our defenses get too lax since the Dark Lord has been gone. I've been careless."

As Narcissa uttered those words, a tall man in a long black cloak watched her from a red glass ball. His pale hand came out and tenderly stroked the glass. He let out a slight chuckle before replying, "Too careless in indeed..."


	11. Chapter 10

**Don't worry, I have not fallen off the Earth. I'm very sorry for not updating but I have become so busy and as a result, I'm not sure when I'll be able to update next. Hopefully by next Saturday, but I'm not too sure about that. Anyways, thanks to everyone who's reading and everyone who reviewed!**

**Dsiclaimer- I do not own harry Potter or any of its characters. They are all owned by J. K. Rowling but I do own those characters, which you don't recognize.

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Charles Duprés hit the soft carpet with a rather loud thud. His body convulsed exactly two times before his jaw snapped open. A rather tan hand grasped his jaw and poured a greenish looking liquid down his throat. The hand shoved his jaw closed as Charles's face began turning green. In a matter of seconds, his face returned to normal.

Charles opened his blue eyes and was met by a pair of rather angry eyes remarkably similar to his own. His eyes widened as he struggled to get off the floor. Unfortunately, he could not do anything as his legs had decided not to move. He looked up with fear all over his face at a tall woman with course brown hair and tan skin that resembled leather to a degree.

Sitting behind her with his legs crossed was a man with slicked back black hair and black eyes. He was drinking a cup of coffee and reading a newspaper.

Charles forced himself to put on a facade of cheer as he turned back to the woman. "Mom...what a pleasant surprise. You should have told me I was coming-

He was cut off as his body sailed through the air and smacked into a wall. The woman marched over to him, her eyes ablaze. She took him by the collar and snarled, "You think you're very clever, don't you?" She dropped him back on the ground and glared at him. "We worked very hard to get you in there, Charles."

He looked up at his mother with a glare. Wiping the blood off his lips, he muttered, "You got to the girl because of me..."

His mother swiveled around to face him with an ugly sneer on her face. "That's not the point Charles!" She turned to the man behind her and said, "Ruin, aren't you going to say something?"

The man looked up from his newspaper at his wife. "What's there to say? He found the weak link. He did exactly what the Master asked." He set down the paper and said, "I'm sure you hoped that he could have stayed there longer, Renée, but he couldn't."

Renée shook her head and looked disapprovingly at her son. "I still don't see how a mudblood can be the weak link." She fixed her gaze on her husband and asked, "Draco Malfoy is one of the most powerful wizards in Britain if what the Master has told us is true. How is a simple mudblood the key to his downfall?"

Charles, who was still on the floor, clutched his wrist, which was throbbing with pain and replied, "He's rather fond of her..." Renée looked at him sharply. "They went to school together, Mom. Then they both became Aurors and they had an accident that turned her blind. She stays with him and he and his mom take care of her."

Ruin let out a slight chuckle as Renée rolled her eyes. She looked at her husband with a slight frown and said, "Being fond of someone is not a weakness. I'm fond of my dog, Ruin, but I wouldn't be heartbroken if it died."

"That's not exactly fondness," muttered Charles struggling to get up. Renée turned to her son and sighed. She strode over to him and helped him up. Feeling his wrist for broken bones, she pulled out her wand and a pink glow issued from it. Charles moved his wrist around and grinned, finding that it was not broken anymore. Renée pulled her son to her and rubbed his head as he tried to get away from her.

"You make me want to torture you sometimes," she said to him.

Charles shook himself out of her grasp and glared at her. He straightened out his clothes and said, "Can I see her?"

"Who?"

"Hermione."

Renée raised an eyebrow and asked, "She is...?"

Charles rolled his eyes and answered, "The mudblood."

Renée gave a disgusted look and said, "The mudblood has a name?" She looked at her son who was very serious and said, "Ask your father for the key."

Charles smirked at his mother who proceeded to throw him another glare. He looked down at his father who was calmly drinking his coffee and reading the paper. "Dad?"

Ruin did not even look up as he said, "Yes?"

"Can I have the keys to the dungeons?"

"You should know by now that we don't own anything in here anymore."

Charles frowned and asked, "What do you mean?"

Ruin sighed and set down his paper. The Master owns everything that once belonged to us. We own nothing anymore." Ruin tiredly rubbed his temples causing Charles to see how serious the situation really was. Ruin was a jovial person in reality. Nothing could tire him out easily. He was an avid supporter of the dark side. He was not one of those people who felt that they had to have a dark attitude to match the side he was on. As a result, his demeanor surprised Charles.

"Dad, what...how is this possible?"

A dark look settled over Ruin's eyes as he muttered, "The Master is a very smart man. He knows everyone's weaknesses." Ruin looked past Charles at Renée who avoided his eyes. "You cannot refuse the Master, Charles. It is better that you learn that now than too late."

Charles frowned at his father and asked quietly, "What is going on?"

Ruin looked helplessly at his wife hoping that she would be of use but Renée merely turned her head away. He looked back at his son and sighed. "You don't belong to us anymore." Charles felt his blood go cold as the words were emitted from his father's mouth. "The Master dabbles in very dark magic. So dark in fact that he managed to get a hold of the...strings that hold me and your mother onto life. If you disobey him or displease him in any way, he won't hesitate to cut them..."

Charles looked upon his father's words with horror. He had fantasized about being one of the most loyal servants of a Dark Lord. He could lead a life where he held all the power in his hand. People would bow down to no one but him and his Master. While he would still have to bow down to the Dark Lord, he would live the perfect life. This was not at all perfect. This was blackmail.

Treacherous thoughts began to emerge in his head. Their family had taken the Master in when he had no one to turn to. They gave him clothing, shelter, food, and they had supported every decision he made in order to further his grasp of power. He should be bowing down to them, not the other way around. He shouldn't be allowed to hold the life of the two people Charles cared about the most in the palm of his hand. He tried frantically to wipe them out so that the Dark Lord would not be able to hear them.

He swallowed nervously and dropped his head slightly. Pushing his black hair out of his face, he looked back at his father and said, "So this is how it's going to be forever?" Ruin gave a barely noticeable nod and went back to reading the paper as though nothing had happened.

Charles turned around to look at his mother but found that she had already left the room.

* * *

Hermione Granger was miserable to say the least. She knew for a fact that she was not at St. Mungo's. To make matters worse, she was chained to a wall somewhere and her head was still pounding without any intention of letting up.

She hadn't eaten in a while and despite the fact that she knew that no one was there, it made her feel uncomfortable when her stomach growled.

Her wand was back at the manor as well. Whoever had taken her was not Draco for a fact. She knew something was wrong from the start but she had not trusted her instincts. It was one of the first things that an Auror was taught to do and she mentally slapped herself for not remembering. If Mad-Eye Moody were still alive, he would have been screaming in her head, "CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" He was paranoid for a reason.

This brought another question to her mind. How did the person who kidnapped her get into the Malfoy Manor in the first place? She knew that the wards on the place could not be fooled. They listened only to the owners of the house rather only to Narcissa Malfoy. From what Draco had told her, even he would not be allowed to control the wards until his mother died. Hermione also knew that after Charles's arrival, Narcissa had told the wards only to let the real Malfoys, Hermione, and Charles into the manor. That left no room for anyone else to come into the manor.

Perhaps Charles disguised himself as Draco to get her to come with him. He certainly was the shady type and she had done her best to avoid him. Yet, she found that he wasn't too bad underneath. Something inside her assured her that Charles would never do that. He was a straightforward type of person. He would have just asked her to come with him somewhere and tricked her into going into the fireplace.

Hermione shook her head and let out a groan as the chains cut into her wrist. They seemed to be growing smaller and smaller by the minute. Going back to what she was thinking about, she realized that nothing made sense. Unless there was an unknown relative Draco had, that left no one but Lucius Malfoy who had been dead since the end of the war. Or at least he was thought to be. Hermione thought back to the conversation she had with Narcissa the day she arrived at the manor.

_"I'm sorry…"_

_"Don't be…the healers did all they could to help him. They were very close friends of his, in fact." Narcissa took out a handkerchief and blew her nose. "It must weigh heavy on their consciences that they could not save him."_

Frowning to herself, she pulled her knees up to her chest and hugged them. The healers were friends of his. She shook her head wondering what Death Eater would turn around and become Lucius Malfoy's healer. A mentally unstable one would. She almost laughed out loud at the thought but then realized something. When Lucius Malfoy was reported dead, she had been at Ron's house. Ron and Harry had been rather drunk as they were celebrating the end of the war.

She distinctly remembered Ron saying something about him because right after he had said it, Hermione had slapped his head so hard that he had fallen over pulling Harry down with him. She frowned wishing she could remember what he said.

Out of nowhere, it came to her. "Too bad he died at his manor, eh Harry? The reporters could have taken pictures of his...hiccup... body at St. Mungo's and we could have had a blast throwing...hiccup...firewhiskey bottles at them."

He had died at the manor, not St. Mungo's. There had never been a funeral. No body was buried. Hermione knew that wizards were rarely cremated. It had something to do with not wanting to release dead souls and their magic into the air. The manor popped into her head and she realized something else. Every portrait in the house except for one was a portrait of a family member of the Malfoys. Dead family members. The healers had been friends of his, presumably Death Eaters...

Suddenly, everything snapped into place. There was no portrait of Lucius Malfoy because he was not dead. But, people thought he was dead even though there was no funeral. To have a funeral, there had to have been a body. No one paid attention to the fact that there was no funeral. Just the news that he was dead was enough to occupy a person's mind. But if a powerful Death Eater had been treated by his so called friends who would stick with him till the end, they would ensure that he did not die.

Where did Narcissa fit into all of this? She must have called Lucius's friends to the manor wanting to avoid a scene with reporters, which was what Harry and Ron had wished for. They must have taken him into a private room and told her not to come in unless she was called. Hermione smiled despite her current conditions. They must have found a way to save him but, knowing that no one would be content until he was dead, managed to hide him somehow.

Narcissa was probably called and told that before they could save him, he mysteriously vanished. The Death Eaters would have told her that he was as good as dead. Come to think of it, she never said that Lucius was dead. She always stopped her sentence right after his name or said that he could not be saved. She never said that he was dead. That's what she must have told Draco though. Hermione knew that Draco was convinced that his father was dead and would refuse to hear anything else about it.

Hermione grinned slightly and muttered, "He's not dead…Well I'll be damned."

"That can be arranged."

Hermione tilted her head towards the voice and winced as the chains tightened around her wrists. "Lucius Malfoy. I would say that it's smashing to see you but as I'm sure you must already know I can't see a thing."

Lucius Malfoy chuckled and leaned on the silver cane in his hand. "Of course I know, my dear. I arranged for it to happen myself."

"What?" Hermione froze and listened for a reply. She had not been prepared for an answer like that.

Lucius looked at her from the other side of iron bars and replied, "You are indeed the brightest witch of your age and I am sorry to hear that the rumors don't lie." He shifted his weight onto his other foot and continued, "You were the only one who noticed that your boss, Mr. Ringler had been acting a bit strange…strange things can be done with the Imperius."

Hermione gasped softly. How could she and Draco have not recognized the signs? Now that she thought about it, they were all there. It must have been the fact that since he was the head of the Auror department, he would never be prey to the Imperius curse. At least she had noticed something and told Draco to look out for it. It was easy to see that he did not heed her warning.

Lucius coughed interrupting Hermione's thoughts. "The wizard who did this to you," he said, a cruel smile appearing on his face, "could not have gotten access to that particular curse unless he was the owner of a particularly useful book, of which there is only one copy." Lucius smiled widely showing all of his white teeth and said, "As I'm sure you have already figured out, I am the owner of that book. That is the reason that no one's found a cure for your…affliction."

"You monster," hissed Hermione. "Why are you doing all of this?"

"Ah, I'll get to that in time, Ms. Granger." Lucius brushed off his robes and said, "Well, with your boss under the Imperius curse, it was not that difficult to have him send you and Draco to the store. It was all a matter of timing. Igneus revealed himself at the right moment and you were hit exactly how you should have been. That completed the first part of my plan or at least I thought it did."

"What do you mean?"

"Patience is a virtue, Ms. Granger. You were supposed to be a distraction. With Potter and Weasley out of the way, I only needed to get Draco out of the way in order to take over the ministry."

"What about the minister?"

Lucius dismissed her question with a wave of his hand and replied smugly, "I took care of him a long time ago." Hermione scowled and gasped as the hand cuffs cut into her skin once again. Lucius did not notice and kept talking. "Draco was supposed to stay at home and take care of you the entire time. I knew my son well enough to see that he had a very guilty conscience. Unfortunately, I did not count on Narcissa pushing him to go back to work while she looked after you.

"That led me to see that my son was not as weak as I originally thought he was. It was as though he had built a stone wall around himself." Lucius smiled uncannily and looked down at Hermione. "I needed to find another weakness so I sent my beloved nephew, Charles Duprés to gather information about the three of you."

"What?" Hermione's eyes widened though she was unable to see anything. "Charles has been working for you all this time?"

"Well, I own him so he has to do whatever I ask of him. I don't reward him for his services."

Hermione spat in the direction where she hoped he was standing and nearly cried out loud as the chain dug into her wrists. She could feel something cold begin to slide down her wrists.

Lucius laughed and shook his head. "Silly mudblood. You must have realized by now that whenever you do something I don't like, the chains will get tighter." Hermione scowled at him and gasped as they grew tighter. Lucius laughed once more and said, "Charles was able to find out quite a few things during the short period of time he was there. I wanted him to stay for a longer time but he was rather careless and was caught. He did find what I was looking for though…"

"And what does that have to do with me?" Hermione shuddered as more blood began to drop down her wrists.

She felt a chill go down her spine as the door to her cell creaked open. The clacking of Lucius's cane came soon after as he strode over to where she was sitting. He grasped her chin sharply, nearly cutting into it with his fingers. He turned her head from side to side causing Hermione to want to throw up.

Lucius dropped her head and looked down at her with a frown. "You are wondering what role you play in all of this?" Hermione nodded, waiting for an answer. "Why, you are Draco's weakness."

Much to her surprise, she found herself laughing at the statement. "Me? Draco's weakness? I think you've made a mistake." She laughed once more and cried out as the chain dug even deeper into her skin. If he kept this up, her hands would be gone in no time.

"No, no, no, I assure you, I have made no mistake. Draco has grown rather fond of you." Lucius stroked his chin thoughtfully and said, "Charles noticed it the minute he saw the both of you."

"You're lying."

"I assure you I'm not, Ms. Granger." Lucius sneered at the blind girl and said, "You would have been blind not to see it." He paused for a second then said, "Oh, I nearly forgot, you are blind."

Hermione shrieked and lunged at him, wanting to rip his face to pieces. Lucius was ready for this and struck her down with his cane. Hermione flew into the wall with a cry and clutched her cheek, which was bleeding.

Lucius looked down at the crying girl with a smirk and said, "You would do well to act…accordingly. You wouldn't want to see Draco hurt now, would you?"

"What do you even want with him?" she cried, clutching her cheek. Blood was pouring down her face and onto her robes at an alarming rate.

Lucius laughed and said, "That, you'll have to figure it out on your own. You can do that, can't you?"

Hermione didn't answer him as he walked out of the cell with his cloak billowing behind him.


	12. Chapter 11

**Sorry for not updating sooner. I know you'd rather read the chapter than hear an excuse so here's the next chapter. By the way, this is my first story to reach 100 reviews so I'm real happy about that! Thanks to everyone who's reviewed so far!**

**Disclaimer- I do not own Harry Potter or any of its characters. They are all owned by J. K. Rowling but I do own those characters, which you do not recognize.

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_Young Draco was in a vast field of grass. There were flowers everywhere. Pink ones, purple ones, even blue flowers were scattered around the sea of green. He felt like skipping for some reason so he did._

_A melodious giggle erupted from the back of his mouth. He giggled loud and clear and continued skipping in the field. Young Draco dove into the grass, relishing the feeling of the breeze blowing past his face._

_Immediately, warm hands scooped him up from the grass and turned him around._

_Draco giggled once more and said, "Mother-" He stopped short as he saw that the owner of the hands was not his mother._

_A kind looking woman with wide brown eyes and curly hair looked at him._

_Draco frowned as he realized that he had seen this woman before. "Hermione?" he asked tentatively._

_The woman nodded and set him down. Immediately, Draco began growing taller and his face morphed from that of a young child to his normal one. His grey eyes locked with her brown ones. He lifted his hand to touch her cheek and his eyes widened as he saw that her face was indeed solid._

_"I thought you were gone..."_

_Hermione smiled and replied, "I am gone."_

_Draco let his hand linger on her cheek before asking, "Then how are you here?"_

_Hermione pulled away from his hand with a laugh and said, "This is a dream, Malfoy!" She spun around in circles and collapsed on the grass, a wide grin on her face._

_Draco shook his head and said, "I don't dream..."_

_Hermione looked up at him from the grass and said, "You created this with your mind."_

_"Did I really?" asked Draco, pushing his blond hair out of his face._

_Hermione sat up and picked a flower from beside her and smelled it. She held it out to him and said, "You made this place...you can make it do whatever you want."_

_She smiled as he slowly took it from her. Draco looked down at the blue flower and watched as it dissolved in his palm. He looked back at her and said, "None of this is real though."_

_He watched as she got up from the ground and walked up to him. She placed her hand in his and said, "It's as real as you want it to be."_

_Draco looked at her petite hand in his then back at her. "Where are you? Everyone's so worried."_

_She smiled at him and said, "Right under your nose."_

_"What do you mean by that?" He didn't get an answer for Hermione pressed a small kiss to his lips and danced out of his grip with a laugh. Draco looked at her retreating back with wide eyes before running after her._

_"Come back!" He looked around the field of grass angrily. "Where are you?"_

_"Find me, Malfoy," came her voice floating on the breeze._

_Draco whirled around anxiously and saw that she was not there. Desperately, he ran, searching for a glimpse of her telltale hair. He stopped as he noticed something._

_The grass was wilting. Soon after, it turned brown and crumbled into dust. Draco was standing in a dust land surrounded by nothing. He was all alone. He took a few steps wondering what had happened._

_"Find me, Draco..."_

_Draco took a step forward but yelled out as the ground underneath him collapsed. He groaned as his body hit the bottom of the hole._

_Something landed on his head. He looked up and a clump of dust landed on his face. More dust began falling. Draco panicked unaware of what to do. The dust kept falling and falling. He was being buried alive. He couldn't breathe. It just kept falling and falling-_

Draco jerked awake, sweat rolling down his forehead. His grey eyes were wide with emotion as he breathed heavily.

"Only a dream," he muttered, "only a dream..." He put a hand to his mouth and closed his eyes. The kiss she had given him felt so real. Shaking his head, he muttered, "Only a dream..."

Seeing as he would not be able to go to sleep, he got out of his bed and putting a shirt on, walked out of his room. He didn't know where he was going but his feet were moving and that was enough for him. Surprisingly enough, he stopped in front of the blue study, his father's study.

Frowning to himself, he opened the door but immediately closed it as he felt the dark magic beckoning for him to come inside. This wouldn't do at all. He was afraid of a room that belonged to a dead man. Pathetic, that's what he was. With a deep breath, Draco pushed open the door and walked inside.

He let the magic flow through him and much to his relief, nothing happened. He didn't feel evil. Letting a smirk grace his lips, he settled onto the leather chair that had been slowing gathering dust from not being used. He felt powerful in this chair. Powerful about what, he did not know. It must have the fact that he sat where his father had once sat. His father was now gone and Draco was here instead. His father was a dead man...

Draco felt his lips curve into a sneer at the thought. Gone? Yes...Draco knew that his father was gone. Dead? Draco sighed and closed his eyes.

Where was Hermione? Right under his nose was what she had said. It was only a dream though. She said that he controlled everything in it. He must have made her say it. He rolled his eyes at the thought. He must have made her kiss him as well then. Strangely enough, Draco did not feel strange about that. He wanted her to kiss him again, even if it was in a dream...

He shook his head. He had to find her. His mother always told him to trust his dreams. He had nothing to trust before as he never had dreams or could never remember them. He groaned slightly and banged his head down on his father's desk.

The door opened, disrupting his self pitying session. He looked up from the desk with a scowl and saw his mother walk in, looking as regal as ever.

"What are you doing here, Draco?"

"I could ask you the same thing."

"I could not sleep. I'll assume that you had the same problem." She walked over to him and smoothed back his hair with a sigh.

Draco scowled and shook her hand away. Narcissa smirked softly. He looked at her and said, "I dreamed last night."

Narcissa smiled pleasantly and said, "Did you now? Tell me about it."

Draco nodded and said, "I was in a field filled with grass and flowers." He looked back at her and said, "I think at the beginning I was about five years old." Narcissa nodded and pulled her robes around her tighter.

"I fell then someone grabbed me. I thought it was you, but it was Hermione..."

"Ms. Granger was in your dream?" asked Narcissa with a slight smirk.

"Yes, she was," replied Draco sullenly. "I became my normal age and I thought she was really there but then she told me it was a dream. I asked her where she was and she said right under my nose and she left. Then I woke up."

Narcissa regarded her son carefully and said, "You're not telling me everything."

Draco scowled at her and said, "After she ran away, I chased her and the grass became this dust land. I fell into a hole and almost got buried alive."

"Common nightmares...rubbish," muttered Narcissa. She looked into her son's eyes and saw that he had a distant sort of look in them. "There's something else, isn't there?"

Draco blinked and said rather quickly, "No."

"Yes there is, tell me."

"There's nothing else."

"Come now Draco, I know you well enough to tell when you're hiding something."

Draco rolled his eyes and looked away.

Narcissa smirked and said, "Was it something...inappropriate involving Ms. Granger?"

Draco looked at his mother with disgust and said, "No..."

"Then what is it?"

Draco stuck out his bottom lip and muttered, "She kissed me."

Narcissa shook her head and said, "That's it? And here I was thinking that it was something horrible." She smiled and rubbing Draco's shoulder comfortingly said, "It's normal to have a crush on someone, dear."

"Mother!" groaned Draco.

"What? Oh...I see...you're in love with her, aren't you?"

"I-" Draco stood up from the chair with a scowl and said, "Why am I even talking to you about this?" He stalked away from his mother who had a smirk on her face.

Narcissa's smirked dropped though. "Hold on a minute, dear."

Draco spared her a glance and said, "What?"

"What is it you said she said?"

"She said that she's right under my nose, but seeing as I've got nothing under my nose except for air, I -"

"Idiot!" yelled Narcissa. Draco looked at her with shock. "Oh, not you dear." Narcissa shook her head and said, "Pack your bags, Draco." She pushed past Draco and walked out of the blue study.

Draco followed her confused. He was getting rather tired of her new spontaneous behavior. She seemed to be coming up with revelations at odd moments of the day forcing him to do strange things. "What am I packing my bags for?"

"We are all going on a vacation," replied Narcissa pulling out her wand. She stopped in the middle of the hallway in front of a portrait of Draco's great uncle. She pointed her wand at it and immediately, all the portraits disappeared.

"Mother!" Draco looked at the hallway with astonishment as the halls faded from their once radiant colors to a dull black.

"We're going on vacation, Draco," said Narcissa. "Get your things and meet me back in the blue study in ten minutes."

"I have a job, Mother. I can't leave it." Draco scowled at his mother but shrank back when she turned to face him.

"Pack. Your. Things," she ground out, leaving her stunned son in the hallway.

Ten minutes later, Draco dragged his trunk into the blue study. He was surprised to see that his mother was already there.

"Good. Just to make sure, was everything black?" Draco looked at her with a look of disbelief before she turned to the fire. "We're going to your aunt's house, House of Cornn."

Draco snorted and said, "Lovely..."

"Her muggle husband named it, not her." Narcissa levitated Draco's trunk towards hers. "Go to her house. I'll come after you." She looked hesitantly around the room before asking, "Draco, tell me truthfully...does this magic seem alive?."

Draco looked ruefully at his mother feeling uncharacteristically like a child as he answered, "It's always been alive." Noticing the worried look on her face he said, "Well, I nearly suffocated from it this morning if that's any use."

Narcissa grasped her throat and said, "Go, Draco. I'll come."

Draco looked around at the once blue now black study and said, "What are you going to do?"

"Just go!" Narcissa shoved Draco towards the fireplace, earning a scowl from him.

He threw the floo powder into the fireplace and grasping the handles of both trunks, yelled, "House of Cornn!" Draco disappeared in a flash.

He stumbled out of the fireplace and nearly crashed into his aunt who had been walking in front of the fireplace at that moment.

She shrieked and whipping out her wand, pointed it in Draco's face. Once she saw who it was, she dropped her wand and said, "It's just you..."

Draco scowled and pulled both the trunks out of the fireplace. "Mother told me to come here."

Andromeda frowned and said, "For what?"

"We're going on vacation apparently."

Andromeda paled much to Draco's dismay. He had expected her to tell him that his mother was a barmy old lady who had a knack for seizing opportunities.

"She blackened the manor, did she?" Andromeda clutched Draco's arm with worry. Draco nodded as the older witch let go of her arm. Andromeda pulled out her wand and, going to a portrait of the same great uncle that was in the Malfoy manor, pointed her wand at it. Immediately, the house of Cornn turned black as well.

Andromeda turned back to Draco and said, "Wait here while I get my things. As soon as your mother comes, catch her. Do not let her fall under any circumstance!" With that, the brunette rushed away.

Draco scowled once more wondering what was going on. He hated it when people did not tell him what was going on. He looked up as he heard the fire roar. His mother staggered out looking deathly pale. Remembering what his aunt had told him, he caught her deftly and sat her down on his trunk.

"Mother..."

"I should have known," she muttered. "I saw it coming." Narcissa's blue eyes shot up to Draco's and said, "Where's Andy?"

"She went to get her things."

Narcissa grasped his arm and looked around and nodded with satisfaction as she saw that the house had already been turned black.

"Mother, for the last time, what is going on?"

Narcissa was about to say something but was spared when her sister came flying into the room, her hair a disarray, with her trunk flying behind her.

"Are you alright, Narcissa?"

Narcissa nodded. "It took much more than I expected."

Andromeda nodded anxiously and said, "I should have noticed it as soon as I came into the manor."

"You are not at fault, dear. I live there! I was an idiot to not have seen it earlier." Narcissa shook her head and said, "What are we going to do now?"

Andromeda gave a hearty laugh and said, "Exactly what you said! Go on vacation." Andromeda took one last look around her house and sighed. "Where were you planning on going by the way?"

Narcissa looked thoughtfully at her sister and replied, "San Francisco..."

"Birchwood House?" asked Andromeda looking revolted.

"It hasn't been in use for years. For all I know, he would not even consider looking there. I-I don't think he even knows it exists." Narcissa smoothed back her hair and said, "Besides, as far as I know, only Blacks can get into it."

Andromeda smirked and said, "Whoever built that house was very smart."

Draco slammed his hands down onto his trunk and hissed, "What the hell is going on here? I refuse to move an inch till someone tells me what this is all about."

Narcissa looked down abashedly as Andromeda rolled her eyes. "Really, Cissa, you are too light on Draco. If my own daughter had said something like that to me, it would have been straight to her room for the rest of the day. I could care less that she's married with children." Her eyes snapped to Draco as she said, "You would do well to keep your mouth shut till we get to Birchwood."

"We're going for sure then?" asked Narcissa, her blue eyes full of concern.

Andromeda took her sister's hands in hers and said, "We have no other choice. You said so yourself." Andromeda turned to Draco who was glaring daggers at her. He far preferred his Aunt Bella to her despite the fact that Bellatrix was mentally unstable.

"You take care of the trunks. Your mother and I must go ahead to disable the wards."

"Wards? You said that Blacks can come in!"

Andromeda laughed. "Your mother and I were born Blacks. You were born a _Malfoy_." There was a second of awkward silence, which neither Andromeda nor Draco did anything to stop.

Finally, Narcissa patted her son on his arm and said, "Wait for five minutes after we go then come. Bring all the trunks in one shot. The floo will close once you leave."

Draco watched as his mother and her brown haired sister left the house through the floo. He knew that he would do anything to get Hermione back. He owed her that but listening to two senile women was not Draco's idea of a brilliant rescue mission.

Five minutes passed very slowly. Once they were up, Draco dragged the trunks to the fireplace with much difficulty and after throwing the floo powder into it, yelled, "Birchwood House!" He stepped into the fireplace not noticing that the fireplace disappeared completely after he left.

He stepped out of the fireplace and nearly fell backwards as a huge gust of wind flew at him. His hands dropped from the trunks as he admired the view. This particular fireplace was outside on a terrace sort of thing, a rather strange place for one to be.

From what Draco could gather, the house was situated on a hill and overlooked what he could only assume was the Golden Gate Bridge, which at the moment was not golden. He sighed and went back to the fireplace to get the trunks. There was an open door to the right of the fireplace through which he went. The house itself was not very impressive. It could have been the fact that it was pitch black inside or it could have been the fact that it seemed rather small.

"Hello?" he called. When no one answered, he pulled out his wand and muttered, "Lumos." The tip of his wand immediately gave off a blinding pulse of light allowing Draco to see well. The house did not look that bad now that he thought about it. It was small but it would do.

Draco suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder and whipped around only to see his mother in front of him with a candle.

"Welcome to Birchwood House, Draco. It's not much, but we'll be staying here for an indefinite period of time." With the candle casting strange shadows on his mother's face, she looked far older than Draco had ever seen her before.

"You should get some sleep, son. It's almost midnight here." Narcissa looked around and said, "Sleep here for now. Andromeda will be awake checking the house for more wards. Go to her if you need anything." She gripped her son's shoulder before leaving through another door.

Draco watched his mother leave with slight disappointment. He could tell that she was breaking down. He had never seen anything take such a big toll on her. She had never looked so old in her entire life. It scared Draco but it also made her seem more human to him.

Pushing the depressing thoughts out of his head, Draco decided to try to catch some more sleep. After all, he was on vacation. He would send Mr. Ringler an owl later. Right now, he needed to relax.

As he dozed off, visions of him and Hermione flashed through his head, her giving him the occasional kiss here and there. Draco smiled vaguely as his body turned off for the night.


	13. Chapter 12

Very very sorry for the long wait. I meant to post this on Sunday but the site was being weird so I did not. I really don't know when I'm going to update again because I have a lot of things going on until the first week of May. Then I'm free for a few weeks then I have to study for finals then school is out! That's still very far away...

Anyways, thank you all for reviewing and here's the next chapter.

**Disclaimer- I do not own Harry Potter or any of its characters. They are all owned by J. K. Rowling but I do own those characters that you do not recognize.

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**  
Hermione was slumped against the wall of her cell, her head in her hands. It had been about five days since she'd been brought here. She had been given a good meal while in here. She supposed that it was the most she would get though.

She wanted to go home. Not to Draco's house but back to her own home with her own parents. They were probably unaware that she was being held captive in god knows where. They would probably never find out about it. It was usual for her not to talk to her parents for a few months at a time. Hermione brushed away the tears that sped down her cheeks.

One thing she could not believe was that Charles had been working with Lucius the whole time. To her, he did not seem like the type who would let anyone control what he did. But he did.

She had an odd dream the other night. It was rather hazy but it involved her and Draco. Hermione could not remember more than that but it was a rather nice dream. She missed him in an odd way. It hadn't been too long of a time since she'd seen him but they had only been around each other every day for about two months.

She missed the sound he made when he walked. He was not loud or anything but his steps were almost dangerous in a sense. There was a cocky sense of confidence in how he walked but that only added to the sound he made.

Hermione missed his touch. They were not intimate or anything but every time he walked with her, he would hold her hand or touch her waist. She knew that it was only a friendly gesture; she was sure he only meant it in a friendly gesture at least. But, she liked it. It made her feel protected in a sense. Every time Charles had been following her or doing something to her, Draco would take her hand and give her a reassuring sort of squeeze and take her away from him.

Merlin, she sounded like a hopeless romantic. She almost smiled despite her situation. Here she was locked in a cell in some random place that was home to Lucius Malfoy and she was fantasizing about his son, who was a wonderful person once you got to know him.

She was getting ahead of herself. There was nothing between the two of them. Things would go back to normal once she got her sight back. That or she would die down here and nothing would happen anyways because she wouldn't be there for anything to happen.

They were not even friends. He was just a man who always kept his word no matter he was asked. A very handsome man at that…

A soft creaking jerked Hermione out of her thoughts. She could hear footsteps walking towards her. It was not Lucius for every time he came down to see Hermione, he always came with his cane. These were rather familiar footsteps.

Hermione pressed her back against the wall and said, "Charles."

Charles Duprés looked through the bars of the cell at her and dropped his head. "Hermione."

"What do you want?" asked Hermione coldly.

Charles shrugged pathetically and answered, "Nothing...I just came to see how you were doing."

"Am I supposed to be thankful for that?"

"I should think so," sighed Charles. "After all, you haven't had any company down here apart from Master." The last word came out of Charles's mouth with a slight bit of hesitation that Hermione refused to acknowledge.

Hermione's mouth quirked slightly as she muttered, "Master...dear old master." She drew her knees towards her chest and placed her arms on top of them. "It must be nice working for him. After all, it's only your life he has in his hands."

Charles gazed at Hermione with an unreadable expression. After a while he said, "He would never kill any of us."

A laughed bubbled forth from Hermione mouth. "Charles, Charles, Charles, Charles...you don't know anything." Hermione clutched her knees tighter towards her chest and said, "You don't know what it means to be in the service of a tyrant like him, do you?"

"That's lovely coming from you," he spat, his eyes flashing. "You don't know either."

"I'm sure I don't know anything from your point of view," she replied pointedly, "But, I could tell you stories of Death Eater meetings that would make you sick to your stomach. Some of them, I saw with my own eyes, that is when I had my sight." When Charles said nothing, she said, "I fought in the war. Don't tell me that I know nothing."

"You don't seem like a war veteran," he admitted. "Look at you now. You're pathetic, lying here having given up all hope."

"You think you know everything but in reality, you don't." Hermione pushed her hair out of her face as she felt it tickle her nose. "You are terribly sheltered Charles. You've grown up here not knowing that the next day you might be dead."

"And you did?" drawled Charles staring at her.

Hermione ignored him and asked, "Where exactly am I?"

"Give me one good reason why I should answer that."

Hermione scowled and answered, "It's not like I'll be able to tell anyone." When Charles didn't answer her, she said, "You are no fun at all."

"You don't strike me as a person who would like fun people." Charles's blue eyes gleamed with slight humor.

Hermione sighed. "Where am I?"

"In a cell, darling," he muttered.

"Do not call me that ever again," she snapped. "Where is this cell located?"

"In a dungeon," replied Charles with a slight smirk on his lips.

Hermione stuck her lip out and whispered in a deadly quiet voice, "Has anyone ever told you that you are infuriating?"

"Only every single day of my life," returned Charles cheekily.

"When I get out of here, I swear that I will strangle you to death, Charles."

Charles raised an eyebrow and replied, "Don't you mean if you get out of here?" He was answered by a shower of sparks behind him. He yelled as they landed on his back, burning him slightly.

"What the hell was that?" he yelped looking at her with wide eyes.

Hermione frowned and said, "What do you mean?"

"You- I- there were sparks on my back." Charles glared at her with anger as she stared straight in front of her. When he remembered that she could not see, his anger lessened considerably.

"It must have been accidental magic," concluded Hermione. "I get angry very easily. Many of my friends can attest to that." Hermione finished her statement with a cool expression on her face. "What did you really come down here for?"

"I told you. I wanted to see how you were doing. Give you a familiar face."

"I'm not an idiot, Duprés," she muttered coldly. Charles looked at her with slight apprehension as she referred to him with his last name.

"Fine then." Charles regarded Hermione coolly before grasping one of the bars with his hands and leaning his head against them. "Master sent me down here."

"Whatever for?" asked Hermione, the coldness not gone from her voice.

Charles's blue eyes bore into hers as he said, "Master wanted me to tell you that he's willing to give you your sight back."

Hermione's froze. Her sight. She wanted it back so badly. To be able to see color again. To be able to do what she wanted. She would be free once again. Not literally, but she wouldn't have anyone guiding her anywhere. She let out the breath she had been holding and dropped her head. There was obviously a catch. Lucius Malfoy would not willingly give back her sight for any slight reason.

Turning her head away from Charles, she said, "What does he want?"

"Pardon?"

"You heard me. What does Lucius want?"

"I- I didn't ask."

"Well, next time, ask," snapped Hermione turning completely away from him.

Charles closed his eyes as he sighed. It would not be easy telling Master that she had not given him an answer. Charles frowned to himself. He had not realized that he had begun referring to Lucius as Master in his head. He hated the man more than hell itself but he was powerless to do anything else.

As lifted his head off of the bars, he glanced back at Hermione who had her head in her hands. He ran a hand through his hair and muttered, "I'm sorry."

Hermione did not give any indication that she had heard him.

Charles walked away with a heavy heart and a horrible feeling in his stomach.

* * *

Draco was sitting outside on the balcony with a cup of hot chocolate in his hand. Hot chocolate was not his favorite drink but that was that there was in the house for some reason. he had been too lazy to conjure some coffee or fire whiskey for himself. 

It was around five o'clock in the morning but, he was wide awake. He had not adjusted to the time in California as it was about eight hours behind the time back where he lived. It had been about four days since his mother and his aunt had brought him here. Much to his annoyance, both of them had been too busy for him to ask them any questions.

The only highlight of his day had been when his aunt had walked into the room he was sitting and crashed into the wall because her nose had been buried in a book. Draco had started laughing but quickly became quiet once she turned her full gaze on him. It was safe to say that he did not like her very much.

He was getting rather tired. Not sleepy tired but tired that he had not been able to get any further on where Hermione had gone. He hadn't gotten any dreams and he was not sure whether that was a good thing or a bad thing.

Draco was subject to a very odd feeling every time she appeared in his mind. It almost as though he wanted her-needed her with him. He thought that it was just that he felt overly guilty for not looking after her properly as the hospital had assigned her to his care but he was not so sure.

Every time he pictured her, her eyes always seemed to be her most prominent feature. Their rich amber color shone with emotion and much to Draco's intrigue did not look as though they were unseeing at all. They looked...not normal to say the least because normal eyes to him did not look that pretty but they looked...

Draco sighed and took a sip of his hot chocolate. He stared out into the bay, sprinkled with tiny lights that ran on some sort of muggle thing called electricity. He would never understand for all the world how any muggle things worked. Perhaps if he asked Ron Weasley's father he might know but to him, asking a Weasley to explain something to him was a blow to his self esteem. It would not do to have a Weasley teaching a Malfoy. Draco was a different person from what he had been at Hogwarts but some things for him would never change.

He had gotten to thinking about his dream. Dreams were a rare occurrence for him. This dream must have held some significant detail that Draco was not focusing on. Draco was not very fond of divination. In fact, he used to make other people do his divination homework for him. The tests on the other hand were very easy as he always had his mother to rely on. She was in love with divination. Her power, Draco shuddered slightly as he thought of it, revolved around divination much to his annoyance.

The power that his mother and her sisters had was a very enigmatic thing. Draco did not want anything to do with it, yet there was one simple thought that pulled at him and constantly nagged at him. They must have gotten their powers from someone. Things like these did not just come to three sisters. This thing must have been passed down from generation to generation in the Black family. If that was true then wouldn't he have some sort of power as well?

Draco laughed loudly then shaking his head, downed the rest of his hot chocolate almost burning his tongue in the process.

He had no special power because he was Draco Malfoy. Draco Malfoy did not inherit anything from his parents apart from the name, dashingly handsome looks, and well, a lot of money.

Somewhere inside of him, a voice said, _but if you did have a power like your mother or your aunt, you might be able to find Granger._

Draco snorted and thought, "Smashing, I develop some sort of lame power where I grow wings on my head and fly around singing that I'm a fairy. That's a wonderful way to find Hermione."

_Referring to her as Hermione, are we?_

"That's her name isn't it?"

_What happened to Granger? That's what you've been calling her all these years._

"What exactly are you suggesting?"

_I think someone is in love._

"Oh, shut up. You sound like my mother."

_I don't see you denying it though._

"Anything that you say is untrue."

"Are you talking to yourself, Draco?"

Draco's gaze snapped up as he saw his mother looking at him with a raised eyebrow. "What?"

"You were talking to yourself, Draco," replied Narcissa looking at her son with a confused look on her face. "You are aware that talking to yourself is the first sign of madness."

"Please mother, I do not need your humor right now."

Narcissa sighed at sat down next to Draco. She pulled her black robe tighter around her body as a breeze flew by the two of them.

"I suppose you are feeling rather frustrated right now." Draco did not reply to her. He faced the bay with a stone like face. Narcissa frowned at him and said, "I apologize for that. Now what is it you want to know?"

"I...I don't even know where to start."

"That could be a problem," intoned Narcissa. Her blue eyes swept over the bay then returned to Draco. "We shall be staying here for a while, just to let you know."

Draco looked at his mother wishing that the crease lines in her brow would go away. He hated seeing her so worried. It made her look old. He did not like seeing her look old. It all served to remind him that one day she too would leave him like everyone else had.

"Why? Why are we here?"

Narcissa sighed and looked at the bay. The sun was starting rise and it looked rather ethereal. Placing a hand on her son's shoulder, she said, "Everything unwanted always starts with something unwanted. My visions were considered a gift for the most part. They come and go and I have no way of controlling them." She sighed once again and said, "They come in flashes. Therefore, I never know when they are going to happen."

Draco looked at her with question as he said, "This has something to do with the vision you had a while back, doesn't it?"

Narcissa nodded and tightened her grip on his shoulder. "I need you to listen to me Draco. I need you to believe me. Don't shut me out like you do to others when you don't want to hear what they are telling you."

"Is it really that bad, mother?" Draco's gray eyes caught the light of the rising sun as he turned to look at her.

Narcissa fixed her gaze on him as she said, "Your father is alive, Draco."

Draco's eyes widened with anger as he heard the words come from his mother's mouth. "You're lying."

"You know as well as I do that I do not lie."

"You told me yourself that he was dead." Draco got up from his seat and turned away from his mother sharply.

"I said no such thing," replied Narcissa calmly.

Draco shook his head and turned back to her, his eyes cold. "I don't believe you."

"You do not have a choice." Narcissa pushed away a piece of her hair that had fallen from its bun and said, "Do you really believe that I would lie to you?"

"Why wouldn't you?" snarled Draco.

"I have never lied to you, Draco, and I never will." Narcissa looked upon her son with an unreadable expression on her face. "Your aunt saw the vision as well as I did."

"Oh, so you show her the vision. That's rich."

"Draco, I do not see why you are making such a big deal out of this." Narcissa regarded her son with a serene expression on her face that did not betray what she was thinking.

He shook his head and laughed. Turning around to face her, he ran a hand through his blond hair and said, "I see what this is." He looked at her with an ugly look on his face and drawled, "You miss father. You still love him and want him back after all that he's done."

Narcissa stood up with a cool expression marring her features and calmly announced, "Draco, stop being an insolent brat." She began walking towards him, her blue eyes gleaming with malice. "I do not deny that I miss him but let me tell you one thing. I do not think that you fully understand the gravity of our situation."

"Well then, since you seem to be the authority on the subject, enlighten me mother."

Draco watched as his mother's eyes narrowed into slits. He could tell that she was seething underneath. He did care because to him, it was what she deserved.

He was not at all prepared for what happened next though. A second later, he was sprawled on the ground holding his stinging cheek. His mother was standing above him with a frosty expression on her face. Her eyes were wildly blue and Draco did not like it at all.

He had pushed her past her point of calmness, he did not deny that. In fact, he had always wondered what would happen if he tested his mother's patience too much. She was known for being the most calm and collected woman on the face of the earth. She had never hit him before though. Draco looked up at her, with an expression of fear and shock on his face.

He watched motionless as she bent down in front of him with an emotionless look on her face. It was times like these that she scared him. In a second, she had her wand out trained at Draco. She muttered something and Draco felt him go stiff. She had used the full body bind on him.

She leaned towards him and whispered, "In all my life, I have never seen anyone act with as much contempt and lowliness as you have just done." She sneered at him and asked in a deadly quiet voice, "What on earth possessed you to speak like that to your mother?" She placed both her hands on Draco's shoulders and drew herself level with his eyes. "Rest assured that if I ever hear anything that disgraceful come from your mouth again, I will not hesitate to punish you."

She watched him with an emotionless mask that Draco hated. He hated it because it was not who she was. It was the result of fifty years of being brought up in a pureblood society with prissy rules that were never meant to be made in the first place. Everything about it was fake. And to see it on his mother's face was not something that Draco enjoyed. At least seeing her look old made her human.

"Your father is alive whether you like it or not. He is the one responsible for the abduction of Hermione Granger. I need you believe that for me, Draco." When Draco merely glared at her, she said, "I know that you do not want to believe it but if you want even a chance at rescuing her, you need to accept it. Do you remember what I told you the day he 'died', Draco?" Narcissa frowned at her son who kept his glare steady. "I told you that he was gone, not dead. Never have I once said that Lucius was dead."

Narcissa looked at her son, her eyes softening slightly. She did not mean to strike him. Draco needed to be told his limits. He had overstepped them and he needed to be reminded of the consequences. In her mind, she admitted that it was wrong of her to strike her only child but, she had let her defenses slide since Lucius had disappeared.

Draco's eyes were hard with anger as he took in Narcissa's statement. In his mind, he knew that she would never lie to him. He should have known that his father would never go away. His death was too good to be true. If the man could escape from Azkaban, he could obviously escape from death as well. He looked her as she watched him with her blue eyes. She pulled out her wand and muttered the counter curse. Draco relaxed as he felt that his body could move again.

"Are you alright now?"

Draco did not look at her. When he finally did, he said, "He'll hurt her."

"What?"

"He'll hurt Hermione."

Narcissa nodded gravely and said, "He might. But there must have been a reason that he took her in the first place."

Draco shook her head and said, "I can't let him hurt her." He looked up at his mother and said, "I gave them my word that I would look after her, mother."

Narcissa nodded slightly and smoothed back his hair. "It's alright, Draco. We'll get her back."

Draco shook his head and stood up. "I'll kill him if he touches her."

"Draco, calm down." Narcissa pulled Draco down into the seat next to her.

Draco looked at her suddenly and said, "You know what's going to happen, don't you?" His reply was a nod. "But you don't know when?" Narcissa shook her head. "Then tell me what's going to happen."

"I can't do that, son."

"Why not?" demanded Draco.

Narcissa sighed and said, "Another downside of having this power. By knowing what happens in the future, the fates take into account any sort of action that the seer or the vision receiver might take in order to change the course of the vision. As a result, those who know what will happen are powerless to do anything."

Draco looked at his mother, emotionless. "What then? Does this whole thing rest on me?"

"Don't think of it as a chore. You want to rescue Hermione Granger because it is the right thing to do. Your aunt and I are there to help you and guide you."

"You and dear aunty," muttered Draco dryly.

Narcissa frowned and asked, "Why is it that you dislike her so much?"

"I just…I don't know."

Placing her hand on her son's shoulder, Narcissa said, "She's not going to take me away from you if that's what you're worried about." Seeing Draco's expression not changing, Narcissa said, "She did not have to welcome me into her home; after all, I did cast her out with the rest of my family. But, Draco she did. She welcomed me home with open arms." Narcissa grasped her son's hand and said, "She cannot leave us even if she wanted to."

Draco turned away from her and glanced at the tall buildings on the hills of the city in front of him. He looked back at his mother and said, "I still don't like her. Nothing will change that."

"Give her a chance, dear." Narcissa smiled grimly and said, "Andromeda is a very interesting person once you get to know her."

"I suppose you are saying that from experience?"

"No, I am not." Narcissa turned away from him and said, "I am very regretful for that." Draco rolled his eyes. "You would benefit greatly from having a close relationship with her. There is much you can learn from her."

"Like what?" retorted Draco, fixing his steely eyes on her.

"Just talk to her. Sit down and make a conscious effort to talk to her."

"That is such a motherly thing to say, mother," retorted Draco dryly. "I never expected to hear you say that."

Narcissa cracked a smile and chuckled. "By the way, we need a few things from the market."

Draco raised an eyebrow and asked, "The muggle market?"

"Heavens no, the wizarding market." Narcissa frowned and said, "China Town, if I'm not mistaken."

"I suppose I could go. I need to get out of this place." Draco ran his hand through his hair and stared out at the bay. He turned to look at his mother but found that she was already gone.

* * *

I was wondering... would anyone mind if I brought Charmed into this...just the sisters? They wouldn't play a major role or anything but after all this is San Francisco and that's where Charmed takes place. Tell me what you think and don't forget to review! 


	14. Chapter 13

Well, let me just say that I am overwhelmed and extremely ecstatic about the number of reviews I have received and the number of people reading this. All I can say is that i am very sorry for not getting this chapter out earlier. It's not very actionny or anything but something major does happen. Anyways, hope you all read and like it!

by the way, did anyone watch Avatar last Friday? I got really mad at that episode but I can't wait for the one coming this Friday...

**Disclaimer- I do not own Harry Potter or any of its characters. They are all owned by J. K. Rowling but I do own those characters that you do not recognize.

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** About three hours after his conversation with his mother, Draco found himself in Chinatown. Of course he knew that it was not China, but he could have been fooled. What amazed him was the abundance of people in one area. It was crowded.

The streets were filled with bright reds and greens flashing everywhere. Cars were parked haphazardly all over the place and people walked about in every direction. On the streets, vendors stood selling whatever they had to offer. The scent of seafood flowed into Draco's nostrils every direction he turned.

What amazed him the most about this area was that it reeked of magic. He had never been to China in his lifetime and he had never wanted to go there. This made him want to change his mind. Chinese aurors, he knew, did not care too much about hiding their auras. In fact, if Draco did not know any better, it almost seemed as though they showed them off to others. Their auras were mostly bright red as in very bright red, brighter than the brightest red that could be made. This red sparkled and shone with a sort of fervor that Draco had always admired from afar.

Now, here he was in Chinatown where every single thing on the street shone in that exact color. He could see it flowing, touching every single person or animal that crossed its path. It was like a current that swallowed everything in its touch. He almost believed for a moment that the muggles could see it.

That was another thing that irked him. This was a blatantly magical community yet muggles roamed the streets without a clue in the world. It marveled him how these wizards hid their magic so well but had it open for the world to see. It was that or the muggles hear knew about magic and did not mind it. He snorted at the absurdity of the thought.

As he took in the sight in front of him, he was shoved slightly to the side. He frowned and glared at the person who had tumbled into him. It was a child no more than five or six years old.

"Watch where you're-" Draco's eyes widened suddenly as he saw what the boy was holding. "Is that…a broom?"

The child looked up at Draco with tear filled eyes and said, "Don't tell my mommy that I stole daddy's broom! She'll take it away and…and…"

Draco smiled uncomfortably at the boy and said, "Calm down…I'm not telling anyone anything."

The boy smiled gratefully at Draco and climbed back on the broom. Draco's eyes nearly popped out of his head as he saw the child rise up in the air and shoot past a bunch of muggles. His jaw dropped as he saw the child fly up to a group of children in the air all on brooms. The muggles had been oblivious to everything.

He watched as the group of flying children pointed to a group of muggles with large sunglasses and muggle cameras. The proceeded to fly straight towards the muggles and laughed loudly as most of them were knocked backwards. He couldn't keep a smirk off his face as he heard them exclaim wildly about the windy weather.

Pulling a piece of paper out of his pocket, he inspected the list his aunt had given him. She had a variety of items on the paper and told Draco to be very careful of what he bought. The wizards in this part of the world were very crafty and would cheat you in an instant if they could. When he had asked her how she knew that, she had simply laughed at shooed him out of the house.

He frowned as he saw what she had written. She needed the reddest wine he could find, two bushels of mandrake root, three pounds of betel nuts and bat hair. She had also written down that she needed rosemary and trinity leaves. Draco raised an eyebrow. He had absolutely no idea what potion she was making.

Draco stepped to the side of the road as the children on their brooms swerved towards them. Feeling slightly rebellious, he pulled out his wand and giving it a wave, a jet of green light shot out of his wand and advanced to chase the children who began squealing happily.

Looking about the place, he noticed a multitude of shops selling herbs and other things, many of which Draco knew would cause muggles to ask questions. He stopped at a view of the shops to inspect the herbs but found much to his chagrin that many of them did not have what he was looking for. At one shop, he saw that many of the herbs seemed too old to still be out for selling.

Finally, he stopped in front of a stall that was placed in front of a funny looking Laundromat. Draco raised an eyebrow as he saw muggles inside staring at some sort of contraption that had clothes going in circles in them. He rolled his eyes and looked down at the herbs in front of him. He picked up a betel nut and inspected it closely. Once he saw that it was to his satisfaction, he put it back and looked around for the person who was the owner of this stall. No one was in sight. He turned around to look at the street to see if there was anywhere else and was immediately confronted with the sight of a Chinese girl about his height, with jet black hair and coal black eyes, standing in front of him. She was wearing a bright red apron and twirled a knife in one hand.

"Now what is a British wizard doing in this part of the world?" she twirled her knife in her hand, her eyes never leaving Draco.

He looked back at her with a bored expression and drawled, "If you must know, I'm buying potion ingredients for my aunt."

"Really? Now why don't I believe that?" The girl looked at him suspiciously for a few seconds.

Draco rolled his eyes at her and her American accent. "If this s how you treat all your customers, it is no surprise why you seem to be lacking in business."

The girl sniffed at him and went to the front of the stall. "What can I help you with?" she asked in a sugary sweet voice.

He pointed at the betel nuts and said, "Three pounds of betel nuts."

The girl slipped her knife into her apron and pulled out a silver cup. She bent down under the stall and pulled out a bag. Scooping the betel nuts into it she said, "Are you trying to make someone sick with these because, just in case you did not know, betel nuts are very-

"-harmful to the digestive system and cause severe poisoning if too much is taken at one time. It is also used as a drug to reduce pain and put people to sleep. Yes, I am well aware of that," snapped Draco.

She raised an eyebrow at him and continued shoveling the nuts into the bag. Once she was done, she tied the bag into a knot and said, "Is that all?"

Draco sneered at her and replied, "That's all for now. How much?"

She smiled sweetly at him and said, "Sixty-two dollars and eighty five cents."

Draco gaped at her speechless. What game was she playing at? These nuts were worth no more than- if his calculations were correct- ten dollars. She glared at her and asked, "Sixty-two dollars?"

"And eight five-" her eyes widened momentarily. "Shit." She threw off her apron and began running. Unfortunately, her feet would not move so she groaned and collapsed onto the ground.

"Jenny!" came a screeching voice. Draco turned to see a tall woman with white hair and bright red lipstick hobbling towards them with an angry look on her face. "How many times have I told you to call me when the customers come? You are a bad girl! You cheat these poor innocent people!"

The girl sulked at the woman and muttered an apology. The woman snapped something to her in what Draco supposed was Chinese and she sprang up. Jenny's face was slightly red as she picked her apron up from the ground. The old woman turned to Draco with a distressed look on her face. She shook her head as Jenny refastened her apron. "My granddaughter here is a very big pain to me." She held out a gnarled looking hand to Draco and said, "I am Arumi. May I ask as to the reason of your visit here?"

Draco gingerly took her hand and asked, "Pardon?"

"What is a great wizard like yourself doing in our humble abode?" From next to her, Jenny snorted. Arumi looked at her granddaughter with a scandalized expression and the girl apologized at once.

Draco watched the two of them with an amused expression on his face. Shaking his head, he replied, "I'm here for my aunt. She needed a few things."

Arumi smiled saccharinely at Draco and gestured for Jenny to come to her. "Jenny, sharpen your knife." When she saw that Draco had taken a step back, she said, "No, no, no, I do not mean to use it on you. I take it that you need a few more things. I probably have them but they would not be cut."

Draco looked apprehensively at the woman before giving her the list of items. As Arumi's eyes scanned the paper, her eyes darkened. She looked up at Draco and asked, "Do you know what these ingredients combined can do?"

"No," he replied shortly. He pushed his hair out of his eyes and said, "At least it is nothing that I can recognize."

"There are few who can," the old woman replied softly. "I hope your aunt knows what she is doing. Tell her that if she needs anything at all, I am willing to give it." Arumi handed Draco his betel nuts and bent down behind the stall. She came back up a few seconds later with everything else that was on the list. Jenny had come back by then and handed her grandmother the knife. Arumi took it from her and nodding to her, went to work cutting the ingredients.

Draco watched her carefully to make sure that she did not mess anything up. As he watched her a question popped into his mind. She had used magic to stop her granddaughter from moving. The children had been flying right in front of muggles. How was it that they were so oblivious to it all?

"How is it that you can do magic in front of the muggles?"

She looked up from the items she was cutting and smirked. "That is the advantage of living in a magical community owned by one of the wealthiest families on this side of the country." She resumed chopping the bat hair and said, "About half a year ago I think, they cast a powerful spell over the whole city. It is like an illusion charm almost but greater." She gestured to the children still flying about. "I am not exactly how the spell works but it cloaks anything magical so they cannot see the children or anything even vaguely magical. A full scale magical war could take place in this city and no one but wizards would see it." Arumi gathered the bat hair into a bunch and put it into a small bag. Handing it to Draco she said, "Free of charge. Come back any time."

Draco took the bag from her and inspected the items once more. Finding that they were to his satisfaction, he nodded to her and turned to leave. Stopping halfway in his steps, he turned around and asked, "Who is this family?"

"You must have heard of them," Arumi replied. "The Duprés."

* * *

_About two days later:_

Hermione was lying on her back in her cell. Her stomach was paining her badly and she was one hundred percent sure that it was not natural. She had refused all food from the house elves because she did not want to risk getting even sicker than she already was.

A jet of pain shot through her stomach causing her to groan slightly. She could feel the sweat dripping down her face. Her clothes were dirty and slightly damp. Hermione wanted to curl up in a ball and die right there on the floor.

She was however still able to hear the footsteps approaching her cell. She grimaced as she registered the tapping of a cane along with the footsteps.

"Ms. Granger," came the silky voice of Lucius Malfoy. "I take it that you are not doing so well?"

"No thanks to you, sir," she muttered, wincing as the chains around her wrists tightened.

Lucius Malfoy looked at the witch in front of him and allowed a smirk to cross his face. "I have no idea what you are referring to. You must have made yourself ill from refusing to eat the delicious food I have been serving you. But do not worry; I am sure that you will be back to your old self in no time."

Hermione mentally rolled her eyes and somehow managed to prop herself against the wall. "What can I do for you?" she rasped.

"I'm afraid that question was phrased wrong. The real question is what can I do for you?"

Hermione winced as her stomach growled. "Real food would be nice about now. Not poisoned food to be exact."

"The house elves served you poisoned food?" Lucius smirked at her and said, "I suppose I shall have to punish them now. I think five sets of twelve floggings should do the trick."

"NO!" cried Hermione, clutching her hands together as the chains tightened around them. "Don't- don't hurt them."

"Some one needs to be punished. This matter simply cannot go unattended."

"Punish me then!" she cried. "Just don't hurt them."

Lucius frowned at her and said, "Punish you? A mudblood? That seems to be a good idea." He grasped the bars of her cell and said, "Would you like to know something?"

Hermione squeezed her eyes shut as she asked softly, "What?"

"My son and my wife are missing."

Hermione's face paled considerably. "Missing?" Her face hardened as she asked, "What did you do to them?"

Lucius's face took on a sneer as he watched her. "Maybe I did nothing. Maybe someone killed them off for old times' sake." He almost laughed when her breath hitched. "Or, maybe, I brought them here. Maybe I tortured them until they couldn't speak. Maybe," he said in a dark tone, "Maybe I placed a silencing charm on then and killed them with my own hands in the cell right next to yours."

"You monster," she spat, yelling as the chains cut into her. She turned so that her back faced him.

Lucius grinned broadly at her before saying, "My offer is still open."

"What offer?" She bit her lip as the chains tightened unnaturally around her wrists once again.

"Why, your sight. Surely you haven't forgotten the message that my dear nephew conveyed to you."

Hermione sighed. She hadn't stopped thinking about it ever since Charles had told her. She wanted it back so badly. To be able to see again would be the best thing in the world at the moment. She was nothing without her eyes; in fact, no wizard was a good wizard without use of their eyes. There was just something about getting her sight back now that made her shrink away. What if it didn't work? This curse was something so unknown that not even the healers could fix it. What if Lucius was purposely misleading her and in the process was trying to ruin her even more than she already was?

"What do you want me to do?" she asked quietly.

"I take it that you've accepted my offer?" he asked cockily.

"What do you want me to do in return for getting my sight back?"

Lucius's cold eyes bore into her as he said, "Is that a yes or a no?"

"Just tell me what you want from me!" yelled Hermione as she felt fresh blood dripping out of her wrists.

"Ms. Granger. I always get what I want," hissed Lucius. "And right now, I am not getting an answer from you." He pushed his cane through the bars of the cell and brandishing it at her, said, "Your children, should anyone ever want to reproduce with you, will be born blind and stay that way for the rest of their lives if you do not have the curse removed." He grinned cruelly as her face paled. "I am sure that you do not want that. So, here are your options. Either you let me remove the curse now and I shall tell you what I want after that or you never have it removed. It is that simple."

Hermione's face dropped as she heard him. It was a lose-lose situation either way. She only wished that she knew what she needed to do. Inwardly, she groaned. Both Malfoy men, as much as it pained her to admit, were alike in that nature. Neither of them would give you a straightforward answer. She nodded her head slowly and took a deep breath as she felt the chains around her wrists loosen up.

Lucius smirked at the girl and swiftly opened the cell. He grasped her chin in one hand and with the other hand, pulled her to a standing position. She was much shorter than him. He sneered at her. Mudbloods were obviously on the more stinted side of growth. They were never tall or strong like the rest of the purebloods.

Hermione nearly cried out as she felt his hand digging into her chin. She wanted to slap him or push him away but she knew that it would only give him further pleasure to know that she hated how he touched her like that. So, she stood her ground, willing for the tears in her eyes not to spill.

He finally let go of her chin but not before running a cold finger down the side of her face. She shivered silently hoping that no expression showed up on her face. He disgusted her infinitely.

"I suppose I could tell you what I want from you. You cannot back out of this deal anyhow." He grasped her dirty hair and murmured, "You will stay in the library, Ms. Granger. Yes, I know that you love books. What I want you to do is simply read them and tell me what you have read." He looked at her glibly and said, "I am growing old and much to my disappointment I have never had the time to read any of the wonderful novels contained within this place."

"That's it?" gaped Hermione. "You want me to read for you?"

Lucius smirked at her and said, "That would be all…for now." Hermione clutched her stomach as a spasm shot through it. Lucius chuckled, which to Hermione sounded very abnormal.

Without warning, Lucius's other hand was on her chin. He yanked it down and forced something down her throat almost causing her to gag. Hermione let out a feral yell as she collapsed to the ground. She felt herself breathing heavily. Her whole body was as cold as ice. She felt as though she was burning yet freezing at the same time. Every nerve in her body screamed at her, giving her the sensation that she was going to die but she did not open her mouth even once. She squeezed her eyes shut willing for it to go away.

Vaguely, she registered stars in front of her eyes as odd as it was. But then, the image of her getting hit by the jets of red light in the muggle store came up. She saw the red light hit her skin and diffuse into her red blood. In an instant she saw how her blood took on a dark tinge, something so unnatural that she almost flinched away from it.

Then, she saw the green. It poured through her body engulfing her blood, turning it a Christmassy sort of color. The darkness was gone but there still wasn't something right. She saw as her blood turned back to red and right at that instant, a searing hot pain shot through her body. She caught a glimpse of her aura and found that the normally gold blue color had a vague swirl of darkness about it, the exact color that was in the blue study.

Suddenly, she saw nothing. She felt her breathing go back to normal. Strangely enough, her stomach pain was gone as well. Her body felt cool, for a lack of a better word. Something nudged the side of her leg. Hermione opened her eyes and was shocked. She sat up so quickly, that she almost knocked down Lucius Malfoy, who was standing in front of her.

She turned her head to look at the cell that she was in and found that it actually was rather spacious. She supposed that she had been sitting in one corner of it the whole time and as a result never knew that she could move about more. The chains were relatively long.

"I see that the potion worked, then."

Hermione swiveled around to face Lucius Malfoy. She was not at all prepared for what came next. There he was standing in front of her looking not a day over how he had looked the last time she had seen him. His resemblance to Draco was uncanny. The way his hair fell down his back, his pale skin, and his ice grey eyes.

She promptly fainted.

Lucius chuckled and shook his head. He struck his cane on the ground two times. A house elf appeared, trembling as it bowed low.

"What can Tobey do for Master?"

"Take this mudblood up to the main library. Conjure a bed for her to sleep in. She will be staying there." He looked down at Hermione's body and said, "Lock all the windows and doors and make sure that she has no way of getting out."

The house elf nodded quickly and snapping its fingers, he and Hermione disappeared. Lucius watched the ground where she had previously been with a satisfied smirk. Everything was going according to plan.


	15. Chapter 14

Well, I can't say that I'm too happy with how this chapter turned out. I don't really like the ending but that's the only way it'll fit the story. Anyways, thank you very much to everoyone who reviewed.

By the way, just a question, what do you all think of the girl they chose to play Luna in the fifth movie? I've heard a lot of things like she doesn't look dreamy enough or she looks like a Malfoy. I think that she does look like a Malfoy but I think she'll do well...

**Disclaimer- I do not own Harry Potter or any of its characters. They are all owned by J. K. Rowling but I do own those characters that you do not recognize.

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He was sitting in front of a laundromat on an iron bench looking serenly at the people in front of him. He watched as the children flew past him on their mini broomsticks, bursts of red magic trailing behind them. he watched the old ladies across the street group together gossiping conspiratorily about something. Draco watched the sellers at their stalls beckon to the multitude of tourists, who walked past their stalls.

Draco blinked and found himself in from of the stall he had bought his aunt's potion ingredients from. He was standing in front of that girl...Jenny. She twirled her silver knife in her hand, the shine from it occassionally blinding Draco. As he watched her, she seemed to almost be carressing it.

Out of curiousity, he asked, "What are you doing?"

"Petting my knife," she answered in a deadpan voice.

He raised an eyebrow and asked, "For what?"

Jenny looked at him with a bored expression on his face and replied, "It needs to be comforted."

Draco took a step away from her. "You...you comfort your knife before cutting things?"

Her black hair fell across her face as she replied, "I like to kill things. My knife is a fragile creature. It's not used to be mean."

Draco snorted and almost laughed in her face. "And tell me, what have you killed recently?"

Her face was blanked as she continued to run her finger up and down the knife. "Nothing...but I have a secret desire to become an assassin. But, my grandmother won't let me."

"Er…alright." Draco rolled his eyes incredulously at her and turned away from her. He needed to stop dreaming crazy things like these. He didn't understand any of it.

Lately, he had been having dreams yet they were not really dreams. In his dreams, he would be somewhere he had just recently visited. He would see the people he had passed by that day. When he passed by them, they just talked to him. He had a queer feeling in his mind that told him that his mind was not telling him these things and that somehow these people themselves were. He did not understand it. He did know that he was fully conscious though. He had tried waking up in the middle of his dreams but found that if there was a person anywhere in his sight, he could not. It was as though there was a wall blocking him from leaving his dream world. Most people do not have control of what goes on when they sleep. Dreams just happen. Yet, here he was fully conscious but not awake. It was rather disconcerting.

He blinked and found himself at the edge of a dock. In front of him was the ocean, tossing and turning. It was a stormy grey color that reminded him faintly of a mirror that his mother used to own. Then, she had thrown it out the window one day saying that it did not show her reflection nicely anymore.

The wind blew past him, blowing his hair everywhere. His robes billowed out around him as he stared into the horizon. He couldn't help wishing that everything was back to normal. That was a word that he had never known ever in his life. He had never been normal. Draco Malfoy was the son of two Death Eaters, one of whom was currently in possession of an abnormal "gift" and the other who was thought to be dead, but really wasn't. Then on top of that, there was Hermione. He scowled at the water and wished for it to open up and swallow him whole.

This was a dream, wasn't it? He could make it do that. Then again, he wondered. If he had full consciousness in his dreams, would it be possible for him to really die? He sneered and muttered, "You never know until you try."

He looked down at the ocean and watched as it suddenly rose upwards. A huge wave at least as tall as Hogwarts towered in front of him. Draco raised his arms to the sky and waited for it to crash down upon him. What happened instead was that he felt it pull him, embrace him. Nothing crashed into him. He closed his eyes contently as he was swirled around peacefully by the water. Even his dreams had pity on him. Yes, he supposed that there was a part of his subconscious that yearned for attention and pity like he received during the time he was at school. There were parts of him that wanted someone to oblige his every whim, but that life was gone and replaced by one that had smacked him hard in the face, one that had given him a large does of reality.

Draco was so preoccupied in his thoughts that it took him a while to see that the current of the water changed. He opened his eyes and saw that the water had started swirling and was now in the process of forming some sort of a whirlpool. Draco watched with a morbid sort of fascination as he felt himself go round and round. It reminded him of a time when he was younger. He had gotten a large dog for his birthday. It was rather large to him as he had only been about four. While his parents were not looking, he had jumped on the dog. The dog, not knowing what had just happened, began running in circles. Draco was thrown off the dog after about a minute and hit his head on a nearby table. He never saw the dog again.

He blinked.

He found himself on another field similar to one that he had seen a few dreams ago. Then again, this time, it was very devoid of the numerous colorful flowers that had been in it. Now, it was filled with a vast expanse of only lush green grass. He allowed a rare smile to pass his lips as he breathed in the scent of the grass.

Something wet popped against his cheek. He frowned as he found that his cheek was mildly sticky. He turned around and his eyes widened. There standing in front of him in a pale yellow dress was Hermione Granger blowing bubbles.

She smiled warmly at him and continued blowing her bubbles. Draco watched her with a calm look knowing that it was only a dream. It wasn't real. He turned away from her knowing that there was no point in dwelling on dreams of things that he wanted. He wanted her with him, yes. But, if he wanted her then he needed to do something about it, not dream. Draco started walking away from her but turned as he heard her call his name.

"Draco!" called Hermione, setting her bubbles down on the grass.

He turned towards her and watched her unfeelingly as she walked towards him. Once she was in front of him, he stared at her long and hard before releasing a deep breath. He slowly took her hand in his and whispered, "Just a dream..."

"What?" she asked, frowning at him.

"Nothing." Then he looked into her eyes and saw something that was not there before. He hadn't really noticed anything about them the last time except for the fact that they were really big and brown. But now...

"You look different this time," he said, cupping her cheek in his hand.

"You look the same as always," she replied, smiling at him. She pulled her hand from his and asked, "Would you like to blow bubbles with me, Draco?"

He smirked at her and replied, "I think I'll watch you for now." She smiled at him and went back to pick up her bubbles. He watched as small bubbles flew out of the rod she was blowing on. She looked so peaceful. If only that was how everything really was. He did not want to pity himself at all. In fact, he knew that it was his fault that she was blind and gone. That was an accepted fact for him but he couldn't help but wish that there was something he could go on. Something that would bring him closer to finding her. Even a clue.

Just under his nose, that's what she had told him last time. There was still nothing under his nose. Perhaps he shouldn't have taken the meaning so literally.

Her back was to him now so he strode up to her and slowly wrapped his arms around her waist. He whispered in her ear, "Don't leave me this time, Granger." Draco lightly pressed a kiss to her cheek and kept his arms around her.

"You left last time though. I couldn't find you afterwards." She leaned her head back so that she was looking at him.

He stepped away from her and looked at her peculiarly. "What do you mean I left? You're the one who ran away telling me to find you."

Her brown eyes gazed at him in confusion. "What? I was standing right in front of you and you ran right past me."

Draco stared at her and replied, "You are the on who told me to come find you."

"I did not," she said, pushing a strand of her unruly hair out of her face.

He fought the urge to roll his eyes and muttered, "This is lovely. My own dreamed up world is arguing with me." He looked at her and said, "Gives no sign of stopping either."

"I always win, Draco Malfoy! I always…wait, what do you mean your own dream world?" she demanded, tapping her foot impatiently. He blinked and suddenly, they were standing in Hogwarts of all places. She looked at him and said, "This is my dream!" She looked at him with an incredulous look and said, "I can't believe that I'm arguing with my head."

"Now my brain deems it fit to mock me. What the hell going on here?" Draco scowled at her. He softened his expression a bit as her eyes grew wide and her mouth formed a perfect "o".

"What? Have you received some sort of epiphany?" He frowned at her and shook his head. The scenery must have been getting to him. He blinked and they were in the Heads common room.

Hermione stepped back and tripped over the table that was next to her. Draco was by her side in a second. He gave her his hand and raised an eyebrow when she didn't take it. His gaze became cold as he saw her looking at him with an expression that mirrored fear. It might have been surprise but either way, she seemed to be shrinking away from him.

"Do I have something on my face, Granger?" He watched as she slowly got up.

She looked at him with wary eyes and muttered, "My mind must be playing tricks on me. This is not real. Not real at all. Impossible rather…" His silver eyes locked with hers and in that second, he realized that there was something odd going on. He pulled his hand away and stared at her wondering what was so odd when suddenly, something snapped in his mind.

He swiftly stepped up to her and taking her face in his hands and whispered almost desperately, "Granger, is that you?"

Her eyes widened even further as her jaw dropped slightly. "Oh my..." She stared urgently into his eyes wondering if this dream was just horrifyingly real while at the same time hoping that it wasn't. "Draco...?" She was silenced by his lips covering hers. She wrapped her arms around his neck pulling him closer to her, wanting him, hoping that she would never be away from him again.

He broke away from the kiss only plant another one on her forehead. Hugging her fiercely to his chest, he muttered, "Don't leave me again, Granger. If you do, I don't know what I'll do."

Hermione kept her arms around his neck as tears fell down her face. "What- how is this possible?" Draco kissed her. "The last thing I remember was going to sleep."

"Doesn't matter," he replied, hugging her even harder.

She looked up at him and asked, "But it does Draco! I mean how do I know that you're not a figment of my imagination and that I'm not a figment of yours? How do we know that this isn't just a dream?"

Draco planted a kiss right below her ear and whispered, "Then we have exceptionally wicked minds. Just don't think." Draco looked at her, feeling as though a heavy weight had been lifted off her heart. "Where are you right now?"

"I was in this cell somewhere," she murmured. "You father...did you know that he's alive?" He nodded into her hair as she continued. "Well he's a monster. He had me in these chains that, every time I displeased him, would grow tighter around my wrists. I'm sure that if you saw my real body, you'd see scars all over them."

"I'll kill him." Draco looked her in the eye and asked, "Did he move you somewhere else?"

She frowned and replied, "I'm in this huge library but I-

"He put you in a library yet you're unhappy?" He chuckled and said, "I never thought I'd see the day that you were unhappy to be in a library." Draco looked down at her and noticed that she looked slightly pale. "What's wrong?"

"I don't know..." She held her stomach and with an odd expression on her face, she said, "Something's _pulling_ me."

Without warning, she disappeared. Draco looked at the spot in his arms where she was been, shocked. She was gone. Not even one word. He stood up fuming. His one chance and he didn't even get to say goodbye. He blinked once more and saw that he was in a volcano of some sort. He raised his head to the sky, a dark blue color with no stars, and let out a deafening roar.

Draco's eyes snapped opened as cold water hit his face. He looked up to see his aunt's eerily pale staring down at him with a peculiar expression on her face. "Are you alright, Draco? You were yelling in your sleep."

He turned away from her with an outraged expression on his face and muttered, "Just dandy."

"If you say so," she replied simply. She began walking away but hesitated for a moment. She turned around to face him, her dark eyes gleaming. "It must have been a really horrible dream you were having judging by how loud you were screaming."

Draco grunted in reply but something in her voice made him turn to look at her. She was standing in his doorway, leaning on the frame, with a knowing sort of look on her face. He was rather unnerved by her but there was something about her that brought forth an immeasurable amount of curiosity.

When she made no move of leaving, he said, "May I ask you something?"

"Certainly."

He looked down not wanting to see her eerie eyes. "The gifts you, mother, and Aunt Bella possess...are they always the same?"

"I don't get your meaning."

He sighed and looked up at her. "I mean, the powers you both have, did you inherit them from witches or wizards who had the same powers?"

"Variations," she replied. She combed a hand through her dark hair. "You know my daughter, Nymphadora? She's a metamorphagus. My mother told me that we had a powerful glamour witch quite a few generations back, she could have gotten her ability from that but I doubt it. My son, he's...well, he's not anything like that but he was a lucky one." Draco could see the pride shining in her eyes as she talked about her children. It was all there with protectiveness that Draco had never seen in anyone except possibly Molly Weasley. "He was just plain lucky, but then his luck ran out..." She looked sharply at Draco, eyes narrowed and asked, "Why?"

Draco looked down and said, "I was just wondering if there was a way to see what gift I could have, if I had one."

Andromeda looked at him with an unidentifiable look before walking towards him. "Gifts aren't always passed from mother to child. Neither my mother nor my father had anything of the sort." She conjured up a chair for herself and sat down in front of him. "Draco, tell me your dream."

He looked at her with an up fronted look and said, "I think I'll pass, dear Aunt."

"No, tell me what you dreamed." The two of them had a staring contest, which Draco successfully lost. "Haven't you learned anything from your mother at all about dreams? About how they can be interpreted?"

"The most my mother has ever told me," interjected Draco, "was that all of my dreams are rubbish and common nightmares."

"Draco, don't lie to me." Andromeda tilted her head and looked at him with a cold look on her face. "I hate being lied to." She leaned forward in her chair and said, "Your question about the powers...it's not a normal question to ask after a nightmare. What did you dream?"

Draco reluctantly looked at her and drew a hand through his hair. "I saw her," he began. "Hermione. She was in my dream, but it wasn't a dream, it was real." He frowned at her and said, "She's alright though..."

Andromeda tentatively took his hand and said, "And?"

Draco closed his eyes and dropped his head onto his hand. He felt like a bloody child in the presence of this woman. There was something about her that made him feel so insignificant. It was not a motherly sort of thing for if it was then Draco would have had very little problem with confiding in her. "Then she disappeared and I woke up."

Andromeda sighed and patted his hand reassuringly. "Just a dream, Draco. You must really like Hermione a lot to be dreaming about her."

Draco snapped his head up and pulled his hand away from her as if stung. "That's exactly what mother said. It was not just a dream. It was her. I know it."

"The subconscious can do many strange things Draco. If we could control what really went on in our minds then we would have the key to eternal knowledge." She got up and looked down at him. "No one is that blessed."

Draco scowled at her and said, "That was her. I know it was." He looked down desperately. "I did not make it up. She was there and she's alright."

The older woman twisted her hair between her fingers with a curious sort of look on her face and said, "What proof do you have of this?"

His grey eyes met her dark ones for a brief moment and he said, "Nothing..."

She nodded to him and said, "I'm truly very sorry." She turned to leave but at the last second turned and said, "Sweet dreams."

Draco watched her go, the streaks of silver in her hair shining as she left the room.


	16. Chapter 15

I am so sorry for the long wait and I won't say any more because I'm sure you all don't want to hear any of my apologies and whatnots. Anyways, this chapter is twice as long as usual. At least it was when I typed it...I'm not too sure when I'll update again because my finals are coming up soon but it will definitely be in a shorter time than I updated this chapter. As always, please read and review at the end!**  
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**Disclaimer- I do not own Harry Potter or any of its characters. They are all owned by J. K. Rowling but I do own those characters that you do not recognize.

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Draco was rudely awoken the next morning by his aunt. As he turned away from her pulling the covers over his head, he winced as she began singing some god awful song that nearly shattered his ear drums. He tried hitting her with a pillow to get her to shut up but it did not help.

What made matters worse was when she yanked the blanket right off of him with an unseemly amount of force that Draco could not even guess that she possessed.

"Wake up dear nephew!" she crooned into his ear. "Today is a day of much joy!"

"In what world?" he muttered, flattening the pillow around his ears. He groaned as she yanked that away from him as well.

Andromeda rolled her eyes at him and said, "I've been thinking a bit about what you told me last night-this morning, whatever you want to call it."

Draco scowled at through bleary eyes. "You said it wasn't real."

She laughed loudly and looked down at Draco with a smirk on her face. "That's the thing, dear nephew. Where magic is concerned, there's nothing that isn't real. Magic, when used properly has no limits. Or at least the old magic didn't. Now, everyone's got it so there's only so much we can do." She sighed and shook her head. "Anyways, today, we shall be going into San Francisco."

"For what?" asked Draco incredulously.

"You want to find your girl then you need to make an effort. Do you really expect to find her, moping around like you are?"

Draco scowled and shook his head. "Why San Francisco?"

She grinned cheekily at him. "You'll see. Oh and your mother, she's gone back to England for a bit. She said something about Gringotts." Andromeda glanced over at the dusty clock that was in Draco's room. "Get ready fast. I'll be waiting by the floo for you. We can grab something while we're in the city.

Draco watched warily as she exited the room. He was really beginning to think that there was something wrong with that woman. First, she seemed all cool and collected a lot like his mother was only ten times worse. Then she became all caring and kind and motherly. Now, well, she was being really odd, acting like some overexcited child. You'd think that she hadn't seen the sun in a million years. Her powers must have been screwing with her head, he concluded.

He met her by the floo about half an hour later his blond hair perfectly jelled back. He was wearing his black robes and shiny black shoes. Everything about him screamed class. Not one hair was out of place. Andromeda took one look at him and raised an eyebrow.

"Do you really want to come out looking like that?" she asked.

"It's better than looking like you," he replied sharply. He looked her over once and rolled his eyes. She was wearing a black sweater with a Christmas tree on it and a pair of jeans that had these sparkly things hanging off of the edges. A gigantic pair of sunglasses rested atop her head while giraffe earrings dangled from her ears.

"There's perfectly nothing wrong with how I look yet you on the other hand will be sure to attract a lot of attention."

"Let people give me attention. God only knows that I haven't gotten enough of it in the last month."

Andromeda laughed affectionately and began mussing up Draco's hair much to his outrage. Once she had finished, she smiled sweetly at him and said, "If you attract attention in this place, news will spread that we're here and your father has a pretty good chance of finding us."Now why don't you go back to your room like a good little boy and change into some muggle clothing."

"I'd rather be dead than caught in muggle clothing."

"Alright then I suppose you won't mind if I hand you straight over to your father then, will you?"

Draco scowled at her and swiftly turned around to change, muttering obscenities under his breath. He heard her yell behind his back, "You can always bring a change of clothes for after. I plan on going to China Town!"

Andromeda waited for her nephew for exactly five minutes. When he returned she gave him a rather sickly smile and said, "Let's go." She took a pinch of floo powder from a vase above the fireplace. She threw it into the hearth and yelled, "Marvin's Magical Tours!" As soon as she disappeared, Draco shook his head and followed her in.

He stepped out of the fireplace and was overwhelmed with what he saw. Witches and wizards of all shape, size, and color were walking in and out of the room he was in. He looked up and saw a flashing sign that said, "WELCOME TO MARVIN MAGIC'S MAGICAL TOURS!" He turned his head to survey the people in front of him and saw that about twenty people were walking around wearing orange witch hats on their heads.

A slight giggling brought him out of his reverie. He turned around expecting it to be his aunt but much to his dismay saw that it was a group of five giggling girls. They all seemed to be about two years younger than he was. He gave them a weak smile and nearly sighed out loud when he saw his aunt behind them talking to a witch in an orange hat.

"Excuse me, ladies," he muttered pushing past the girls. That only seemed to make them giggle even more. Draco touched his aunt's elbow and muttered, "Tell me that this tour is only five minutes long."

"It'll go on for about half the day," said the witch in the orange hat. Draco suddenly had the urge to knock that ridiculous orange hat of hers off her head and curse it until it shriveled up and crawled into a hole in the ground.

"Come now, Draco, how bad can it be?" The sound of giggling registered in her ears. Draco pointed to something behind her. She nearly laughed in his face as she saw the five girls whispering amongst themselves and waving to Draco. "There, now you'll have all the attention you wanted. Congratulations, dearie." She patted his cheek and turned back to the other witch.

Draco groaned and hoped that the day would end quickly.

Luckily, the girls were not coming on the same tour as them. The one he and Andromeda had gone on was one that gave a tour of the major wizarding community in San Francisco. He has been very much in awe when he had seen it for floating peacefully in the clouds right above the famed Golden Gate Bridge was the magical center of San Francisco.

The tour bus they were on lifted right off the ground as if it was some sort of a cruise ship and the sky was its ocean. It flew quickly and even faster, Draco guessed, than a broom.

Draco guessed that it must have been even bigger than the whole muggle city itself. Millions of houses were spread about the sky while the witches and wizards themselves walked about as if there was nothing beneath them but the ground. Broom sticks sped around the city at such a high rate that a thrill of excitement shot through Draco every time he saw it. There was a part of him that wanted to fly with them. Flying was something that, surprisingly enough he had always had control over despite what other people thought. It gave him a sense that he was free every time he hurtled towards the ground or soared through the sky.

Another thing that stunned him even more when he realized it was that the air up here sparkled. You could not see the auras blatantly like you could in China Town but it was there. It sparkled. He could feel it swirling around him, embracing him as though marking him as its own. Every inch of magic that had ever come into this place was in the air and it felt wonderful. It was not only good magic. There was a definite taste of dark magic that added to the allure of the city. It was almost seductive in some aspects.

He supposed that he stood staring at the city for a good ten minutes before Andromeda placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Breathtaking, isn't it?" Draco nodded. Andromeda turned to look at the tour guide in the orange hat and murmured, "And this is about as far as the tour will take us."

"It's over already?" he asked, still staring.

"No. But the tour will not get us any farther on what we really want to accomplish." She looked at him levelly and said, "From here on, everything is in our hands."

Draco did not look at her but said, "I suppose you're right." His grey eyes darkened momentarily then he said, "Where do we start?"

Andromeda shrugged and replied, "Wherever the wind takes us."

"Meaning..."

"We need to talk to the locals." She looked around and the bustle of people moving about everywhere and said, "Or...this place must obviously be similar to the wizarding community back home. All the houses and mansions up there are in a certain area- magically designated areas, aren't they?"

"Yes," replied Draco, "But what has that got to do with anything?"

Andromeda looked around the area they were in and pointed to something. "Right there. It's a map of this whole area. Houses and mansions are not allowed to be built outside of this area."

"Then why is China Town down there and not up here?"

"Muggles use it. Do you see any muggles up here?"

Draco shook his head and sighed. Running a hand through his messy hair, he scowled and said, "I suppose that the most logical thing to do now would be to see where Charles and his family live."

Andromeda nodded and said, "That's what I assume but it is best that we do it another day."

"Why?" he asked frowning at her.

She pointed behind him. The tour guide had now reappeared with the rest of the foreign witches and wizards in tow. "Our ride back is leaving also," Andromeda began guiding Draco towards the group, "don't look obviously but there in the corner is a little girl."

As Draco walked towards the tour, he saw a little girl, eating ice cream, out of the corner of his eye. "What about her?"

"She's what you could call a spy. She doesn't know it though," murmured Andromeda.

The two of them got back onto the bus with the tour and once they had begun their descent back to land, Draco asked, "How can she not know it?"

Andromeda sighed and said, "Over here, life runs rather differently back home. Different rules and different customs. Would you believe me if I told you that some family pays for her whole education provided that she told them exactly every single thing she did or person she saw?"

"But she's a little girl," exclaimed Draco incredulously. "What does she know?"

"You would be surprised at the things little children see. They understand more than we think."

Draco watched his aunt with a look of distaste. "How did you know who she was?"

She turned to him with a slight smirk and said, "It's the weekend, Draco. How many little children do you know who come to the heart of a town on the weekend all by themselves? She can't be more than seven or eight. Doesn't that strike you as suspicious?"

Draco said nothing as he turned away from her.

After they had reached the ground, Draco and Andromeda went to China town for Andromeda needed more potion ingredients. Draco had no idea what she did with them. The ingredients he had bought for her the first time, she had used them up within two days and he had bought quite a lot of things too. She had made him go again three more times. Then again, he liked going there. There was something about the color red that drew him in.

"Draco, where's that place you keep getting the things I ask you for?"

"Why?"

"I would like to go there."

"Again?" Draco frowned at her. "What exactly are you making?"

"Something," she replied. "I know what I'm doing if that's what you're wondering."

Draco rolled his eyes at her and said, "Follow me."

As always, as soon as he hit the center of the town, he felt every inch of the red magic flowing through him. He could feel it seeping through his skin and flowing through his blood the way water flowed through a stream. It was strong and commanding and it was times like these that made Draco forget who he was and what was going on at the moment. He watched as the magic enveloped all those around him. An old man was shaking his cane at a young boy who was flying his broom in circles around him. A little girl was playing with her brother who was desperately trying to make her go away. A young muggle couple stood in front of an antiques shop hand in hand, while the red magic flowed past them like wind. He was free to just watch everything here. He could understand the lives of these people for fractions of seconds before the feeling went away only to be replaced by the lives of others and it gave him a warm feeling. A small smile graced his lips and he failed to notice how his aunt was watching him.

"You like it here?"

"Very much," he breathed, barely hearing what she asked him.

"You might not want to do that too often though."

"What?"

"Using magical sight…most people don't have it and when another person uses it, it looks almost as though they're zombies. You go into a sort of trance using magical sight and it's a bit scary to those who don't know what you're doing."

They both finally stopped in front of the Laundromat that Draco had grown so accustomed to seeing. Instead of seeing the kind old woman, Arumi, he saw her granddaughter, Jenny. She was violently chopping a flower into the tiniest pieces he had ever seen it his life. She wasn't even looking at the flower either. He could feel the breathless feeling he had flow away from him as he took in her sight. It was replaced with barely unconcealed disgust.

"Oh, look who it is. The powerful British wizard graces me with his presence." Jenny's coal eyes gleamed maliciously as she gave him a flowery bow. "What do you want?"

Draco was about to answer but was cut off by his aunt who said, "You're rather rude, you know."

Jenny raised an eyebrow and asked, "Really? I never knew. Who are you? His maid?"

Andromeda looked the girl straight in the eye and stood up straighter. Draco could feel the air around them growing colder so he brushed his hand over his aunt's shoulder. She looked at Draco then back at Jenny. "I am Draco's aunt, Andromeda Tonks."

Jenny dropped her knife with a loud clatter that Draco could hear even among the din in the town. "You're the witch grandma's always talking about. She says you're really powerful…"He smirked at her as her coal eyes grew as wide as saucers. Her jaw dropped several inches and he almost had to restrain himself from laughing.

As she continued to stare at the dark-haired witch in front of her, Andromeda nonchalantly looked at her nails and said, "Now that introductions are over with, would it be possible for me to speak to your grandmother?" She looked around and said, "I presume that it is your grandmother who owns this stall."

Jenny, still shocked, blinked rapidly then finally said, "She-she's sick today."

Andromeda frowned slightly but said, "That's a shame. I suppose I'll have to make do with you."

Jenny nodded vigorously and cleaned up the bits of the flower she had been chopping up. She gave a hesitant smile to the older woman and scowled as she saw the smirk Draco had on his face. She shoved the flower under the stall and said, "What would you like?"

As Andromeda began conversing with Jenny about what she wanted, Draco decided to sit down on a bench that was in front of the Laundromat. Taking a seat, he leaned back and sighed. This whole place was so surreal to him. Coincidentally, this was the first place that came into his mind when he "dreamed". He realized now that what he was doing was not really dreaming. He had perfect control over it. It had taken him a while to get the hang of it but once he was asleep and in his dream world, he had full consciousness and could wake up any time that he wanted to.

He compared it to using Legimancy on himself, if that was even possible. The way we saw it, whatever he saw in his dreams was only places he knew that he had already seen and been to. There was nothing created. Nothing imaginary for sure. Draco had talked to his mother the other day about his dreaming but he had gotten the vague impression that she had not even registered what he was saying. Lately, she had been very preoccupied with something. She must have gotten a vision or something.

Draco frowned. Everything seemed to have something to do with their silly powers. "Gifts" or whatever they called them. A bit of bloody nonsense, that's what it was. He shook his head and decided that only a jealous person would think thoughts like that.

He was interrupted from his thoughts by some sort of cheering. He stood up and went over to where his aunt was and asked, "What's going on?"

She shrugged and looked onto the street where a crowd was starting to form. Jenny narrowed her eyes and gasped, "Well, if it isn't the queen of San Francisco."

"Queen?" asked Draco with a frown.

"That's what I call her," she replied rolling her eyes. "Everyone bows down to her feet because they think that she's so cool." She sniffed and said, "What does she have that no one else has? Money. Stupid, stupid, money."

Draco looked at her with an incredulous look on his face. He had never heard anyone talk like she did.

"But everyone loves her anyways," continued Jenny oblivious to the looks Andromeda and Draco were giving her. She drew a finger down her knife and said, "Yes, let the crowd part for Madame Renée Duprés."

Draco and Andromeda's eyes grew wide in an instant. Draco scanned the crowd to see how far away she was and dashed to the other side of the stall and pushed himself under the cart. He did not even care that he was humiliating himself doing so. If she saw him here, he would be dead for sure. Jenny watched him with a confused look on her face. She bent down and asked, "What are you doing under my cart?"

"What does it look like I'm doing?" he hissed, narrowing his grey eyes at her.

"You like an ass," she replied simply. When Draco glared at her, she shrugged and came back up. She looked at Andromeda hesitantly and said, "Um…if it isn't too rude of me, why is he hiding?"

"Don't say a word until she leaves," muttered Andromeda, her brown eyes betraying no emotion. "Act normally." When the girl didn't do anything, Andromeda looked at her and said, "Well, continue cutting."

Jenny frowned and went back to work. She felt very uncomfortable. This witch who was obviously very powerful from what he grandmother had said was scrutinizing her every move and a grown man was crouching beneath her cart hiding from another very influential lady. Jenny had never had that much adventure in her life. She could smell something suspicious going on here.

A moment later, she saw another shadow looming in front of her in addition to that of Andromeda's. She also heard Draco's breath from underneath her cart hitch as he tried to quiet his breathing. Jenny looked up and saw Renée Duprés standing right in front of her. As hard as she tried to, she could not peel her eyes off of the woman.

There was nothing beautiful about her except for her eyes that looked very similar to the one's belonging to Draco. Her brown hair seemed rather course and paper-like giving herself a windblown and slightly fragile look. Her skin was tan and leathery, a fact that disgusted Jenny to no end. But there was a powerful aura about her. It was different from Andromeda's in that it was just that she looked superior to everyone else. That superiority gave her power.

Renée turned to the crowd that had gathered behind her and said, "Continue on with whatever you were doing before I came." She gave them a forced smile and turned back to Jenny. "Hello, is the old lady who normally works here around?"

Jenny shook her head rapidly, still in awe of the woman.

Renée frowned slightly then said, "Well in that case, I'll just look around."

Jenny nodded and kept staring at the woman. Finally, she was interrupted by a slight cough. She and Renée turned to look at Andromeda who was regarding Jenny with a slightly miffed look. "My roots, dear?"

She murmured a quiet sorry to the older witch and dropped her eyes. She frowned and looked back up at Andromeda, her eyes growing wide. The woman before her looked nothing like the witch who had been here except for her hair and eyes. She shook her head muttering something under her breath and went back to cutting.

Renée stepped away from Andromeda and looked her up and down. "Have we met before?"

Andromeda took in a quick breath and flashed the other witch a smile. "I don't think so."

"You're British?" Renée asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes, I am."

She looked at Andromeda through narrowed eyes and said, "I have- or at least my husband has family back in England. Maybe you know them?"

"Perhaps," replied Andromeda meeting the other woman's eyes. Her eyes flashed for a moment before she asked, "Who are they?"

Renée's lips curled with disgust as she muttered, "The Malfoys."

"Who does not know the Malfoys?" laughed Andromeda. "Filthy rich family if I ever saw one. Quite rude as well." She paused to see the other witch's reaction.

Renée nodded her head with disgust and said, "I agree." She looked at Andromeda once more and asked, "Are you sure that I haven't seen you somewhere before?"

"This is my first time out of England, actually." Andromeda smiled rather coldly at Renée, who failed to see the malice behind the smile."

She nodded her head and asked, "Pureblood?"

"Of course. I wouldn't have it any other way." A faint snort was heard in the background, which Andromeda chose to ignore.

Renée tossed her brown hair over her shoulder and looked Andromeda over once more. "Well, it's not every day that I see another person like myself. It would be nice I had some company for once. My husband's a bore when he's working and my son well, he's…busy. I would love to have you over for lunch sometime."

"I'm not too sure about that," said Andromeda, tugging on one earring. "You see, I'm here with my nephew."

"Oh, does he live here?"

"Erm…no. It's rather complicated. He actually lives with his grandmother…my sister-in-law's mother. Both his parents are dead from the war. And well, she's getting a bit old so she dumped him on me for a bit as I was coming out here on vacation."

"How old is he?" asked Renée, apparently intrigued by the rather odd piece of gossip.

"Twenty-four…almost twenty-five."

Renée clapped her hands together and said, "That's the same age as my son! You definitely have to come for lunch now!" She watched Andromeda with hawk-like eyes and when Andromeda smiled slightly, she said, "Great! Tomorrow then, 12 sharp."

She turned to Jenny who was violently chopping up her flower again and said, "Tell the old lady that I came. She'll know what to do." Turning to Andromeda she spoke softly, "My house or rather, my castle," Renée shot Andromeda a sugary look, "is unplottable and no one can see it either. So, I guess I'll have to send you a portkey." She frowned and asked, "What is your name by the way?"

Andromeda raised an eyebrow and replied, "Iris…Iris Bennet."

"I think I've heard of your family. Greece?" Andromeda merely smiled frostily at her. Renée smiled back the same way, a grin coming onto her face as she realized that Andromeda was not in awe of her like most people she met. "Where are you staying by the way?"

Andromeda twisted a strand of her dark hair between her fingers and said, "Do you know the place called Marvin's Magical Tours?"

"Yes, I do. It's a rather trashy place for someone like you isn't it?"

"Actually, it has rather nice lodgings in a secluded area of the building reserved for very wealthy guests. You'll have to send the portkey straight to the reception area though. They don't allow floo mail."

"How…quaint." Renée glanced at her watch and scowled. "So sorry but I have to leave. My husband will probably starve if I don't get home. He hates eating without the whole family there." Without one look at Andromeda, she turned and walked away form them, drawing huge crowds with her as she went.

Draco emerged from underneath the cart looking very annoyed. "Took you long enough. Merlin, that was the most boring conversation I've ever heard in my entire life. I almost fell asleep down there." He raised an eyebrow once he saw Andromeda's face. He blinked and her face looked went back to normal.

"You probably would have if I hadn't hit your leg with my knife as I went to get my flower," interjected Jenny. Draco rolled his eyes at her.

"How much of what I said do you think she believed?" asked Andromeda calmly, her dark eyes taking on a calculating look.

"All of it, I'm guessing. Renée is not a very smart woman. Everyone knows that." Draco leaned against the cart and said, "She might not have believed the part about your nephew though. Poor boy, still living with his grandmother at the age of 24. How tragic."

"Not as tragic as it would be if I say, plunged this knife into your head," muttered Jenny.

"Your sarcasm fails to amuse me," shot Draco. He turned to his aunt, his grey eyes weary and asked, "What did you do to your face?"

She frowned at him and replied, "It's what I normally do…you know, to preserve my anonymity."

"That was really cool though," said Jenny. "I didn't even see you pull out your wand."

Andromeda merely gazed at her as Draco said, "Well, she did and she probably went so fast that you didn't even see it." Draco smirked at her while Andromeda muttered something about immature children.

Jenny glared at Draco and pulled out a fresh batch of flowers that she immediately began chopping. Andromeda and Draco stared at her for about five minutes before Andromeda said, "Jenny, my herbs."

Jenny looked up startled and blushing slightly, graciously gave Andromeda everything she had asked for. Once Andromeda had paid for all of it, she said, "Thank you and tell you grandmother the same."

As Andromeda turned to leave, Draco looked at Jenny, with a look of intense dislike. Feeling rather childish, he watched chop her flowers and at the right moment, grabbed the knife from her hands. Her brows furrowed in outrage as he traced the edge of it with his finger.

"You know, if you're trying to become an assassin for the government, you'll never get anywhere by chopping flowers. In fact," he chuckled, "You'll never get anywhere at all."

Jenny was about to say something nasty but then looked at him with confusion on her face. "How did you-I- I've never told anyone that in my life."

Draco sneered at her and tossed the knife back. "Lucky guess." He turned to follow his aunt but she caught him by the sleeve and demanded, "How did you know that?"

"You're bloody trying to murder those flowers, what else could it be?"

"No, you're lying. How did you find out?"

Draco rolled his eyes and yanked his arm from her grasp. "Would you believe me, if I told you that I dreamed it last night?"

Jenny's eyes widened slightly. She stepped away from him and said, "You were in my dreams last night too! I barely remember it at all but I know I woke up right after I saw you and I couldn't even go back to sleep because you ruined my whole dream." She narrowed her eyes at him. "Do you haunt people in their dreams or something? Is that-is that even legal?"

Draco glared at her and said, "You are mental. I don't haunt people, insolent child."

"I'm only seven years younger than you," she countered. "I'm not a child." Her coal eyes flashed. She looked him up and down and said, "I'll let you off this time. But the next time you're in my head, I swear, I'll murder you while you're sleeping."

"I'm quivering with fear," he muttered turning away from her, giving her the impression that he thought she was stupid. In reality, he was filled with wonder. Could he have really done that, gone into her head? It was probably only a coincidence but… magic has no limits.


	17. Chapter 16

Wow, it's been almost a month and a half since I've updated. That's a very long time. I had no inspiration at all then it suddenly hit me in the oddest place. My friend's dad just recently had a cardiac arrest and was in the hospital so I was there with her when suddenly I knew exactly what to write. I find it slightly disturbing.

Anyways, this chapter was originally way longer but then I decided to split it in two because I don't like reading outrageously long chapters. I will definitely post the next chapter by Wednesday. I promise. As always, please read and review at the end:)

**Disclaimer- I do not own Harry Potter or any of its characters. They are all owned by J. K. Rowling but I do own those characters that you do not recognize.

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** Recap:

"Take this mudblood up to the main library. Conjure a bed for her to sleep in. She will be staying there." He looked down at Hermione's body and said, "Lock all the windows and doors and make sure that she has no way of getting out."

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"You definitely have to come for lunch now!" She watched Andromeda with hawk-like eyes and when Andromeda smiled slightly, she said, "Great! Tomorrow then, 12 sharp."

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Hermione was placed in a rather tall room after Lucius had given her to the house elf. The room itself was actually very small. 

She woke up on a bed to the right of the door with a desk right behind it. A mahogany chair was placed in front of it and a large lamp was on the table. There was another door in the room that led to a bathroom that was normal sized.

Across from the bed was an armoire which, from the outside looked small but in reality, was filled with thousands of dresses and robes that were provided for Hermione's use. Next to the armoire was a window about four feet tall and four feet wide made of the most solid and clear glass that Hermione had ever seen in her life. Just to test it out, she had thrown a book at it. The book had bounced off. The window gave a clear view of the magnificent gardens of whatever place she was in. The room must have been at least three stories high and had windows the size of the first one going up the whole thing. There were no curtains.

What really stunned Hermione was the fourth wall. On this particular wall was a bookshelf. It stretched from one end of the room to the other, which was not very wide but it also stretched from the floor all the way to the ceiling. From what Hermione could tell, every single inch of every single one of the shelves was covered with books. There was not even one vacant space.

The problem with it was that there was no ladder to reach the books that were on the higher shelves. She supposed that this was because whoever used this library levitated the book off the shelf with their wand but she had no wand.

When she first saw the shelf, she had to sit down on her bed for a while to comprehend what was in front of her. She hadn't seen this many books in one place since Hogwarts and if she wasn't mistaken, she hadn't heard of many of these books before either.

Naturally, she had taken the first book she could get her hands on and started reading.

This particular day found Hermione standing on a shelf in the middle of the massive bookcase with a dusty yellow book in her hand. She would have gone to the top but her fear of heights was a rather nasty handicap and she did not feel like dealing with it at the moment.

She looked at the book one last time making sure that she knew exactly what she was doing. Once she was sure of it, she very carefully closed the book and slid it on top of another book as there was no more room for another book in the shelf she was standing on.

Making sure not to look down, she readied herself for what she was about to do. The book that she was reading was a pretty advanced book on wandless magic. Hermione had done a little reading on wandless magic before but it wasn't anything too serious. She always had her wand with her. The book said that wandless magic was triggered by emotion. Any kind of emotion was fine as long as it was strong. She had strong emotion, the need for freedom from this accursed place.

The chapter she had read before climbing the book case had been about preventing damage to oneself when falling. It looked simple enough. The person doing the magic should be falling and right before hitting the ground should say the spell. Hermione had practiced the spell at least a dozen times before finally convincing herself to come up to where she was. Besides if it didn't work, she would be dead and she wouldn't have to live in captivity anymore. That was a pleasant thought.

Any sane person could see that she was bored out of her mind.

Hermione squeezed her eyes shut and muttered, "It's now or never." Taking a deep breath, she counted, "One…two…three!"

She snapped her eyes open and leaped off the bookcase screaming as she fell. Her heart pounded wildly in her chest as the ground came closer. Just as she was about to say the spell, someone stepped underneath her. She promptly forgot about what she was supposed to be doing and still scraming, crashed down on top of the person.

Her heart stopped at the moment and she looked around. She was alright. Not dead. But then she heard a groan coming from under her. She looked down and saw someone under her sporting a lovely bloody nose.

She scrambled off of him and said, "Who are you and just what do you think you are doing in here?"

He looked at her with amazement and asked, "What do I think I'm doing? What do you think you're doing jumping off of a bookshelf?"

Hermione sniffed at him and said, "That would be none of your concern." She frowned suddenly and peered at him. Her eyes widened as she asked, "Charles?"

He pulled out his wand and stopping the flow of blood form his nose said, "What? Forgot how my voice sounds already? Here I was thinking that you would never forget me."

Hermione stared at him with an odd expression on her face. "Narcissa told me quite a few times how much you looked like Draco but I never thought that you and he could look so much alike."

"You're very articulate aren't you," he sneered looking at her pompously. That was when comprehension dawned on his face. "Wait…you can see me?" He gaped at her, wide-eyed.

"Who's the articulate one now?" she muttered eying his shockingly black hair. "What do you want Charles?"

He tilted his head and looked at her with a smirk on his face. "You can see me now."

"Yes, I believe we cleared that fact already," she replied crossing her arms.

Charles walked up to her and looked down at her with a feral grin on his face. "I think we can have a lot more fun now."

Hermione raised an eyebrow and said, "I'm not doing anything with you." She narrowed her eyes at him and said, "I would really appreciate it if you left Charles."

He laughed at her and snaking an arm around her waist, pulled her closer to him. Ass she struggled to get out of his grip. He pulled her chin towards him and placed a rough kiss on her mouth. Finally after a few seconds he let go of her. Hermione's face was white with anger.

"How dare you," she seethed, pointing a finger at him. "You have some nerve coming in here and kissing me like that. Let me make something clear to you. I hate you."

Charles laughed once more and grabbed a hold of her finger. He pulled her towards him once again and said, "You don't mean that." Much to her dismay, he kissed her again. Giving her a nasty looking smile, he turned to leave the room. Before he got the door he said, "Today, the fun starts!"

"Fun?"

He smirked at her and said, "Yes, the fun. You see, now that you can see me, I know for a fact that you will not be able to resist my charm." He scoffed and said "No one can."

Hermione looked at him incredulously and said, "It amazes me how full of yourself you are."

He smiled and said, "Don't worry your pretty little head off thinking about it. I guarantee you that you'll never be able to figure it out."

"What?" Hermione brushed her frizzy hair out of her face and gave him a very confused look. Charles merely waggled his eyebrows suggestively at her and quickly left the room so that she had no time to try and escape.

She stared at the door for about five minutes trying to figure out what had just happened. Charles Duprés was very good looking, she had concluded though not as good looking as Draco of course. He had kissed her as well. Twice. Draco had kissed her too…well she wasn't too sure what to make of that. She was still debating on whether it had been a cleverly crafted dream that her mind had made for her or whether it was real. Whatever it was, she enjoyed it.

And while she did not like Charles in the least, his kisses made her feel tingly inside. There wasn't anything really special about them but she got a thrill from them. It was probably due to the fact that she was a very deprived girl.

She was still not completely sure why come here in the first place. He obviously did not know until just now that she could still see. Perhaps he came to check up on her on Lucius's orders.

Hermione shook her head and decided to try her jump again. Hopefully she would not be interrupted this time. Just for safekeeping though, she took the multitude of pillows that were on her bed and placed them on the ground. While she knew that they would not help at all, she felt slightly reassured.

She took her time climbing up the shelf, making a mental note of all the books she planned to read as she went up. When she finally reached the shelf with her book on it, she took a deep breath and very carefully turned around so that her back was to the shelf. Repeating the incantation in her mind, she began counting.

"One…two…three!"

Hermione jumped off the shelf with a strangled cry. This time instead of opening her eyes and waiting for the right moment to say the spell, she squeezed her eyes shut and repeated the incantation over and over in her mind. She only hoped that the spell would still work this way.

About ten seconds passed before she realized that she hadn't hit the ground yet. She opened her eyes in delight, thinking that the spell had worked. Much to her dismay, it hadn't. When she opened her eyes, she saw a house elf almost in tears with a trembling finger pointed at her.

"Miss!" It screeched. "What is you doing?" The elf looked at her with round, tear filled eyes.

Hermione's heart immediately dropped as she saw how much pain she was causing the elf. "I wasn't doing anything. Just a bit of magic, that's all."

"But miss was going to die!" wailed the elf, abruptly dropping Hermione to the ground. She landed with a thump on the pillows and watched ruefully as the elf burst into tears.

Hermione got up and soothingly rubbed the creature's back saying, "But I am not dead now. Thank you." The house elf continued crying. "Now what did you come in here for?"

The creature looked tearfully at her and snapped its fingers. "Food for miss!"

Immediately, Hermione found herself strapped to her desk with a plate of delicious looking food in front of her. As much as she was thankful for the food, she still did not know why Lucius had all the house elves strap her to her seat. It wasn't as though she was going to waste any of the food or throw it out a window.

She looked down at the food with a sigh and said, "Thank you."

The elf beamed at her and said, "I is saying to you, no more jumping off master's shelves. It be dangerous!"

"Hit yourself with a stick," muttered Hermione thinking of how nice it would be to whack Lucius Malfoy with a stick. The house elf on the other hand, thinking that Hermione was talking to him, conjured a stick and started whacking its head with it.

Hermione's eyes grew wide and she cried, "Stop! I wasn't talking about you!"

The house elf continued whacking itself and said, "But miss said-"

"No! Please do not hit yourself." Hermione bit her lip anxiously as she waited for the creature to stop. Once it did, she said, "That's better."

The elf bowed to her and said, "Master says that only when you is done with all the food, the bindings is gone."

Hermione nodded and the house elf disappeared with a crack. She sighed and slumped back in her chair, staring at her food with dislike. For one thing, she was not at all hungry and there was quite a bit of food on the plate. Lucius insisted that she was kept well fed even though she was a prisoner and a mudblood. She didn't see the point. Secondly, that was the second time her plan to try the wandless spell had been foiled. Perhaps it was a warning that something bad was going to happen or even it was just a way of telling her that she was never going to be able to perform the spell.

No, think positive thoughts. Hermione remembered reading somewhere that people who thought positive thoughts were less likely to die. Keeping that in mind, she somehow managed to stuff every inch of the food on her plate into her mouth. As soon as she finished, the bindings came off her chair and she was able to get up again.

She decided to wait for a little while for she was sure that she would throw up if she tried jumping off the shelf so soon after eating. So to pass the time, she decided to do some more reading on whatever book struck her fancy.

* * *

Draco tuned his mother and aunt out as the two of them continued screaming at each other. 

"You what?" Narcissa screeched, her blue eyes wide with anger.

Andromeda looked calmly at her younger sister and said, "I agreed to have lunch with Renée."

"I heard what you said," the blond woman hissed. She rubbed her forehead nervously and asked, "Why on earth would you do that?

"Well, they are the only link we have to Miss Granger's disappearance, aren't they?"

"Yes, but you are forgetting one important fact, dear sister," hissed Narcissa. "Ruin knows what we look like. How do you plan on going there without him seeing you?"

"For some odd reason, you and the rest of your family seem to assume that I am an idiot," sighed Andromeda, shaking her head. "Perhaps you've heard of something called glamour?"

"I'm not dumb Andy," she snapped.

Draco rolled his eyes and took a look at the clock in the room. They still had an hour before he and his aunt were supposed to go to lunch. He didn't know why he had to go with her. He just wished that he could find Hermione and have this whole ordeal be over. He also wished that his aunt and mother would kill each other so he wouldn't have to hear their constant arguing but he never got anything he asked for. He didn't realize why it was such a big deal to his mother that they went and had lunch. What was she doing to help find Hermione? Did she have any visions that she could help them with? No. All she was doing was carting back and forth between here and England trying to safe guard all the Malfoy money and estates. Draco was pretty sure that the only reason his mother and aunt were fighting was because his mother was jealous that she could not come with them.

He heard her say, "Then what are you going to do when you get inside their house?" Narcissa's mouth contorted into an ugly sneer as she asked, "Are you going to ask her if she has a mudblood prisoner in her house? Because that would be unseemly and rude."

Andromeda rolled her eyes and replied, "What would you like me to do? Act like you?" Andromeda looked coldly at the younger witch and said, "Would you like me to sit quietly like the obedient pureblood wife that you once were and sip tea with my pinky sticking out?"

Narcissa gaped at her sister and said, "I do not sip tea like that."

"Yes you do, mother," commented Draco from next to her.

"Children are to be seen and not heard," she snapped. She turned her blue gaze upon Andromeda and said, "What are you going to do?"

"Unlike you, I believe that much can be gained by simply talking, asking questions, and listening." Andromeda leaned back leisurely on the chair she was sitting on and said, "Perhaps I can rope another visit out of the woman. I am never rude."

Narcissa scowled at her sister and said, "That still leaves the question of Draco. Are you going to put him in a glamour as well?"

"Naturally," replied Andromeda, her dark eyes shining. "Charles has already seen the boy therefore we have no other choice than to disguise him."

"I suppose you're right." Narcissa frowned and taking a quick glance at Draco asked, "Why is Draco going anyways?"

"I happened to mention that I was on vacation here with him and she asked me to bring him along."

"In case neither of you noticed, I am still in the room," Draco muttered. "No need to talk to me in the third person."

"But what if it happens?" asked Narcissa completely ignoring him.

Andromeda looked at her sister oddly until recognition dawned on her face. "If we're not back by midnight tonight then you will know that something is wrong."

"Midnight?" she snapped. "Are you planning on staying for dinner as well?"

Draco groaned as his mother and aunt began arguing once more. With a defeated sigh, he left he room and went outside to the balcony. This was wonderful. Both of them knew that something was going to happen and they were ignoring him completely. He then remembered that his mother had gotten a vision a while back when everything was still normal. Then there was that talk about Lucius.

Draco scowled as he realized that he would need to be on the constant lookout. If this had anything to do with his father then someone, most likely he, would get hurt in the end.

He desperately hoped that he would get some answers today. If he didn't, well, he didn't know what he would do. One thing was for sure, it was going to be a long day today.

* * *

About an hour had passed since Hermione had been given her lunch. It was exactly 12 o'clock. For one thing, she hated having lunch so early because it left her feeling rather odd for the rest of the day. Her dinner pattern got messed up and she found herself hungry far before the normal time that she was accustomed to having dinner. But by this time, all her food was long gone and she was ready to take a final try at jumping off the bookshelf and landing safely. Hopefully there were no interruptions this time. And if there were, she would just have to find something else to do. 

She put her current book down on the table behind her bed and going to the book shelf, began her climb to the middle. The dusty yellow book that contained the spell remained untouched where she put it. If it did work this time, she decided that she would read more about wandless magic so she slowly tossed the book onto her bed from the shelf.

Silently hoping that the spell would work this time, she wished desperately that no one would disturb her while she jumped.

Taking a deep breath, she began counting. "One…two…th-" She never finished three for she felt something on her arm. Looking over, she saw a black spider slowly making its way up her arm. Letting out a scream, she attempted to brush the spider off only to lose her balance and fall off the bookshelf. Still screaming, she only saw the ground approaching at the last second. The spell rushed through her head and immediately, she felt something tug her body to a standstill.

The spell had worked. Breathing heavily, she saw that there was barely even five inches between her body and the ground. She looked at her arm fearfully and much to her relief, there was no spider. Hermione looked around, a feeling of accomplishment in her eyes.

She looked up though when a clapping noise echoed through her room. Lucius Malfoy was standing in front of her, clapping, with a sneer on his face. His eyes held a horrifyingly gleeful expression though.

"Very impressive," he drawled, his grey eyes piercing her. He stepped fully into the room and said, "That was a very advanced piece of magic that you performed."

"I happen to be very skilled at magic unlike others," she replied a tad bit arrogantly, not taking her gaze off him. She muttered "Finite" letting out a slight gasp as her body hit the floor.

"Which is precisely why I placed you in here."

"So that I could learn more magic?" she asked dubiously.

"That and for other reasons," he replied, a gleam in his eyes. "I had expected you to accomplish something rather small, nothing of this magnitude."

"I do whatever I find interesting," she spat, her brown eyes flashing at the man.

"And I compliment you for that despite your unfortunate blood. I guarantee you, Miss Granger that you will find many more interesting things here." He stared at her and said, "Many of these books are one of a kind."

"I am aware of that," she replied coolly. She pushed herself up and staring him straight in the eye asked, "What do you want?"

"Well, I've had a few complaints about you today." He grabbed his silver cane which was leaned against the wall and said. "One from Charles and one from a house elf. Both of them told me that you were trying to kill yourself by jumping off a book case. The elf was inconsolable and I had to punish it for all the noise it made."

Hermione scowled at him and said, "Clearly they were wrong."

"Yes, clearly they were." Lucius wiped an imaginary piece of dust off his shoulder and said, "Anyways, the reason I am here right now is to tell you that we have guests here at this very moment."

Hermione raised an eyebrow and asked, "Are we meeting them?"

"Of course not, silly girl. These guests are British and I'm dead and we've kidnapped you." Hermione rolled her eyes as Lucius continued, "Back to the matter at hand. It would be advisable that you do not do anything that even suggests that the Duprés are keeping a kidnapped auror in their abode. Do I make myself clear?"

Hermione scowled at him and said, "I suppose I'll have to find something slightly less dangerous than jumping off bookshelves then."

Lucius gave her a piercing gaze and said coldly, "Try to make as little noise as possible."

"You are a wizard, place a silencing charm," she replied simply turning away form him. She walked over to her desk and sitting down at the chair, began reading the wandless magic book.

"Wonderful idea, Ms. Granger." He sneered at her and pointing his wand at her, muttered, "Silencio." Giving her an eerie smile, he exited the room.

About ten minutes passed before Hermione let out a frustrated scream. She was not surprised to find that she couldn't hear anything. She glared at the door and just to spite him, threw the lamp on her desk at it. She expected the lamp to shatter, which it did, but she didn't' expect the window next to her armoire to shatter. She heard it and she felt it. Hermione turned around and stared at the long pieces of broken glass in front of her in awe. It looked to be almost six inches thick. No wonder she wasn't able to make even a dent in it.

She didn't know how it broke though. Perhaps it was accidental magic? No, she had control over all of her magic. Besides, her magic wasn't strong enough to accidentally shatter a six inch thick window…but maybe it was.

Hermione carefully made her way towards the broken window and stared outside. As soon as she looked out, she immediately pulled her head back in. It was a long drop down. Much longer than the drop from the book shelf. She could escape from this house though. She would have no where to go, but she could escape. It would all have to be planned carefully. For all she knew, there were probably wards, big ones, surrounding every inch of this place and if she triggered even one of them, she would be right back where she started and that would not be good.

And then she remembered something Lucius had said. She was at the Duprés abode, as he had put it. And Draco was a sharp man. She knew that he would find it rather suspicious if Charles left soon after she disappeared. He would come here to look for her. If he came here and she was gone, that would be bad.

Her mind immediately shifted into high gear as she looked out of the window. There was absolutely no way she would be able to escape this place. Even if she managed to escape this room, the wards would probably react violently to her presence and that was something that she wanted to avoid at all costs.

No, if she could get to the guests that would be good. They were British after all. They would have to be purebloods and acceptable to the Duprés family for after all, if this was their house, they were rather classy people. Any purebloods would know Draco Malfoy and his mother. They could send a message to him!

She frowned as she saw that sending a message verbally would be a problem. Damn Lucius and his silencing spell. Scowling, she went back to the desk and rummaged through the drawers for paper and a quill. Much to her luck, there was a rather worn out quill in the botton drawer along with a sheet of parchment. She smiled

Now to figure out how to get to them.

Hermione carefully leaned over the edge of the broken window and looked down. It was a long drop but, she really needed this. It appeared that there was some sort of patio. Where there was a patio, there was a door. Hermione smiled grimly and looking around took a deep breath. Standing at the edge of the window, she jumped.


	18. Chapter 17

Wow, I feel very proud of myself. I think it's the first time I've ever updated the same story two times in one week. Anyways, I'm feeling really happy today because I got my permit on Monday and then I drove on Tuesday for two hours, which was really fun, and when I tell people that I got my permit they're all like whoah, you're still 15? I've gotten that question about ten times in the last two days. Anyways, I hope you all like this chapter and I just have to say that I'm not too good at choatic scenes so beware.

**Disclaimer- I do not own Harry Potter or any of its characters. They are all owned by J. K. Rowling but I do own those characters that you do not recognize.

* * *

**

It was exactly 11:59 in the morning and Draco and Andromeda were standing at the receptionist's desk at Marvin's Magical Tours holding a rather oddly shaped vase, which was the portkey that would take them to the Duprés's "castle" as Renée had put it.

Draco was slightly annoyed for Andromeda had changed his appearance so drastically that he cringed every time he saw himself in a mirror or in the glass of a store window. His blond hair was now a dirty brownish orange color and hung loosely until his shoulders, his skin was smattered with freckles, and his eyes were the same eerie brown as hers. If he didn't know any better, he'd say that he almost looked like a Weasley.

Andromeda on the other hand still had her beautiful silvery brown hair and her dark eyes but her facial features were different. Her slightly pointed nose was now rather round and her slender chin had a sharp sort of angle to it. She also had freckles and much paler skin. Though it did not sound like she looked too much different, just the manner in which she held herself promoted a huge change.

"How much longer?" asked Draco impatiently.

"About thirty seconds." She looked down at her watch then back at him. "Remember, my name is Iris, you are my nephew Earl Bennett and you are here on vacation with me because your grandmother did not want you around during the summer."

"Isn't that slightly odd though?" asked Draco. "I am twenty four. Shouldn't I have a job?"

Andromeda rolled her eyes at him and said, "Fine, you have a job that is highly time consuming therefore you get a two month vacation during the summer to do as you please. Happy?"

Draco nodded just as the portkey activated. He felt a tug and a jerk on his navel and a few seconds later, they were standing in the middle of a grandly furnished room. While it was nowhere near as elegant and old-fashioned like that Malfoy Manor, it was still nice. It had a modern twist to it which was a little odd at first.

"This is rather small compared to home," drawled Draco loudly.

Andromeda sniffed at him and said, "Not everyone is as rich as you."

Draco crossed his arms, his eyes shining as he bragged, "That would be why we are one of the richest families on this planet."

Andromeda rolled her eyes and said, "You had best keep quite now. She's coming."

Just as Andromeda said, Renée Duprés sauntered into the room, wearing bright gold dress robes and diamond earrings. Her face was caked with makeup and bright red lipstick painted her lips. "Ah, Iris. You're here."

"It seems I am," replied Andromeda tightly. "I am very sorry if I have kept you waiting."

"Don't worry about it." She turned her gaze to Draco and peered at him. "This would be your nephew?"

"Earl Bennett," he murmured giving her a short bow, taking her hand in his and not kissing it.

She smiled sourly at him and said, "My son and my husband will be down shortly. I'm sure they'll be pleased to meet you."

Draco nodded and muttered, "Me too."

Renée gestured to the room she had just come from and said, "Come. Lunch is waiting." Draco and Andromeda followed the woman into the next room where they were met with oddest looking dining room they had ever seen. The walls were bright red with silver edges and a massive glass chandelier hung in the middle of the room. On one side of the wall, there was a massive window and the sunlight that filtered through reflected off of the chandelier giving the room a rather bright and holy appearance. The ceiling was gold. On the whole, it was a little too bright for Draco's taste. He preferred darker colors such as black and dark green.

There was a tiny table in the middle of the room that looked more like a side table and was definitely too small for five people to sit at. Draco and Andromeda watched as Renée walked over to it and tapped her wand on it. She turned to them and said, "My husband, Ruin, bought this for me from Brazil. Their enchanted tables over there are marvelous. By the time she had finished saying this, the small surface had grown to be a massive table capable of seating at least twenty people with quite a bit of room in between each seat.

"Isn't this a little big for five people?" asked Andromeda, her nose in the air.

Renée colored slightly and said, "Our house elves cook very well. Therefore, we have a lot of food."

Andromeda nodded slightly before sparing Draco a glance. She gave him a gaze that clearly said that she thought nothing of this woman. Draco could not help but agree with her. It was clear to both of them that she loved to flaunt wealth in everyone's faces.

At that moment, Charles Duprés and his father Ruin Duprés entered the room. Renée gave the two of them a rather sugary smile and said, "So kind of the two of you to join us." She gestured to Andromeda and Draco and said, "Iris and Earl Bennett."

Ruin shook Draco's hand cordially then turning to Andromeda, he frowned. "Have I seen you somewhere before?"

Andromeda's smile faltered very slightly but nevertheless she replied, "I don't think so. This is my first time here."

Ruin took her hand and placing a small kiss on it, much to the chagrin of his wife, said, "You remind me of a cousin I had."

"Really?" came Andromeda's reply. "Who?"

Ruin frowned and said, "We don't speak her name anymore."

Andromeda pulled her hand out of his grasp and giving him a smile replied, "Indeed."

Charles took a look at Draco and holding out his hand said, "You look like a nice fellow. I'm Charles."

Draco took Charles's hand gingerly and arrogantly replied, "Earl Bennett." Charles nodded and taking Andromeda's hand, kissed it and said, "Charles."

"It's a pleasure to meet you," she replied, her eyes boring into his. Charles dropped her hand and inadvertently shivered, his blue eyes darkening.

"Shall we all sit down?" asked Renée, sensing the slight amount of tension in the room. Everyone nodded and soon, they were all seated at the table. Ruin sat at the end of the table facing the window, Andromeda sat down at a chair facing the left wall while Draco took a seat next to her. Charles took the seat across from Draco and Renée sat down next him.

Immediately, all varieties of food covered the entire table, ranging from stuffed goose and turkey, all the way to salads and soups. There was an assorted choice of wines as well. Draco had to admit that this was almost as good as the food back home. Almost, being the key word in this situation.

"Let's eat," chirped Renée in a sickly sweet voice.

As they elegantly put food onto their plates, for purebloods never did anything in an inelegant fashion, Draco gazed out of the window at garden that spanned out in front of it. It was rather large and unusually green. It had some sort of a fake look to it and judging by the way this house looked, Draco was sure that it was. Fake gardens must have been in fashion for he remembered how just recently, his mum had been talking about how Gringotts would not insure her fake plants that she had bought for an insane amount of money from Morocco.

"Nice isn't it?" came Charles voice across from him.

Draco glanced at the man and said, "Quite."

Charles looked at Draco uncertainly and said, "You're not the talking type are you?" Draco merely ignored him. Charles looked outside and then back at Draco. "Earl was it?"

"Yes."

"Well, err…do you like gardens?"

Draco, who was very adept at catching onto poor conversation starters decided to give his cousin a break and replied, "Yes. In fact, the garden back home at my grandmother's house was grown by me. No gardeners or anything of the sort."

Charles grinned and said, "Dedication to gardening. That's something you rarely see among people like us these days." He looked out at the garden and said, "This is all fake though."

"Really?"

Charles, giving his mother a sideways glance, leaned forward and said, "My mother is very concerned with fashion trends. If something is in fashion, she'll go all out just to show her 'friends' that she is in sync with what is 'in'."

Draco gave him an odd look. "What?"

Charles shrugged and replied, "I don't know. I'm just repeating what she told my dad."

Draco rolled his eyes and looked back outside with a sneer. Just as he was about to turn back, something rather fell passed his line of view. It looked particularly like...

"Did you see that?" he asked Charles.

He looked up and raised an eyebrow, for there was food in his mouth. "What?"

"Something large fell past the window."

"You mean flew."

"No, fell."

Charles took a sip of his wine and said, "It's probably a bird. We have these fat birds sitting on the roof of our mansion, much to mother's dismay. They always shit on the gardens. One probably fell that's all."

Draco raised an eyebrow and replied, "It was much larger than a bird."

Charles frowned and asked, "Human size?"

At this point, Renée interrupted the conversation. "As I said before Iris, they've already become good friends." She smiled at Andromeda who managed to smile back. "Now what were you talking about?"

"Earl here thinks he saw a person fall past the window."

Renée laughed a little too loudly for Draco's comfort and he exchanged a glance with his aunt whose eyes said nothing. "A person? Why Earl, you have a rather...active imagination."

Draco stared at the older woman with a clear face. "It looked like a girl," he said as simply as he could.

Renée's face faltered just slightly. She smiled and said, "Well, if it'll ease your conscience, I'll have Ruin check the fifteen other rooms that run up this wall and the roof." Draco barely resisted the urge to snort as she said that. She was a right braggart.

Ruin and Renée exchanged a glance and he nodded. He smiled warmly at all the occupants of the table and said, "Please excuse me." With that, he swept out of the dining room.

Making sure to close the doors behind him, he placed a silencing charm over it so that no one would be able to hear outside of it. With that, he yelled, "Philostrate!"

A rather tall and thin man with a curling grey mustache and a balding head presently came into view. He bowed and said, "Yes sir?"

Ruin snapped something to a passing servant and said, "Philostrate, I need you to check in every single room above the dining room for a broken window or signs that someone may have jumped."

"Yes sir." Philostrate bowed. He looked at his master and asked, "The library as well sir?"

Ruin scoffed and replied, "No need. The windows are half a foot thick. No one can break them."

"The mudblood girl is being held in there, sir."

Ruin's eyes flashed momentarily. "Fine. I'll check the main library, the top two rooms and the roof. You check everything underneath the library. We'll meet back here after we're done. Hurry," he snapped.

Philostrate bowed and ran off, which was a very funny sight to witness. Ruin cursed under his breath as he too trudged up the grand staircase to the upper floors of the mansion. He really did not want such a big house. The thing was that it was a family house. He inherited it from his father who inherited it from his father. It wasn't nearly as big before Ruin inherited but once he married Renée, everything changed. Some changes were good, some were bad. The addition of five floors happened to be a bad change.

Ten minutes later, Ruin had checked the roof and the two floors under it. All that remained for him to check was the library. He was absolutely sure that there was no way for the mudblood to get out of the room. The windows were extremely thick and nearly impossible to break. Panting outside the door, he quickly composed himself and knocked on the door to the library three times before entering the room. He stopped dead in his tracks. Thick shards of glass littered the floor and the girl was no where to be found.

Ruin cursed loudly under his breath once more as he rushed out of the room back to the main entrance hall. If he did not know any better, he would probably say that she escaped hoping to get Iris and her nephew to convey a message back to the Malfoy boy and his mother. That would be the worst thing that would ever happen. The Master would have his head as well as the rest of his family's heads.

Once he reached the entrance, he saw that Philostrate was already there. He marched up to the thin man and hissed. "Find that girl and make sure she does not come anywhere near the dining room!"

Philostrate bowed to Ruin and ran off into the kitchen. Ruin muttered something under his breath and putting on a rather forced smile walked back into the dining room, closing the door behind him.

"My apologies. It seems that something did fall out of a window."

"A girl?" asked Andromeda curiously.

Ruin shook his head and replied, "Well, we have a rather err...unruly maid working for us at the moment and she's often prone to temper tantrums so she threw a few chairs out of a window on the 13th floor."

"Is she hurt?" asked Draco with a bored expression on his face.

"I- no."

"She should be," replied Draco with a nasty smile. "Putting you all through so much trouble. If I were you, I wouldn't stand for it."

Ruin gave Draco an uneasy smile then took a large gulp of his wine. That wasn't before he gave Renée a look that clearly said "trouble".

Philostrate marched into the kitchen with a rather disgusted look on the face. Every human servant who worked for the Duprés knew that Philostrate was a firm believer in pureblood supremacy and the fact that they had a mudblood, even if she was Harry Potter's friend, in the house was despicable to him.

Currently, the kitchen was filled with huge quantities of food with more being made each second. The house elves were rushing everywhere in a frenzy. It made one wonder why they did so much work when most of it was not going to be eaten that day.

"If anyone minds, we have a mudblood on the loose in the estate." He spoke of Hermione as though she was a common pest such as a rat. "I need a few of you to help me look for her. The master and I believe that she jumped out the window of the library. We're not sure if she is dead or alive." He looked around and asked, "Any volunteers."

Only one person, the cook, decided to help him. The Duprés had a human cook as well as a house elf cook. They preferred using the human cook for meals when they had no company and the house elves cooking for when they had company which was fairly often. She was a thin woman. One would expect her to be on the plump side but she was definitely not fat. Philostrate motioned for her to follow him. The two of them exited the kitchen and began walking down a narrow corridor that led right to the patio.

"Philostrate, that girl could not have survived a thirteen story jump," the cook began.

He merely snorted and said, "The master believes otherwise. With that, he reached the door that led outside and pushed it open.

* * *

Hermione felt herself falling and for a split second she realized that she was going much faster than she had anticipated and it struck her that she had just done a very stupid thing. The spell had only worked once and there was no guarantee that it would work this time. Her mind was on overload right now and she felt her whole life flash before her eyes as the words to the spell flew through her head. Right before she struck the ground, the jerking sensation gripped and she stopped, a little harder than before. She let out a huge breath as she dropped safely to the ground. 

That had been relatively easy.

She felt the ground with a renewed sort of passion as she realized that she hadn't seen the ground in a very long time. She only had her cane and her senses to see for her. She looked up and saw a wide glass door in front of her. If someone saw her through them, she would be finished. So, looking around, she saw a clump of bushes to the side and quickly dove behind them. As she dove into them, she felt that something was not right. She frowned at the bush and almost laughed out loud. Every single leave on the bush was a fake. She hated fake plants.

Right then a door to the side of the massive glass door that she hadn't seen before opened up and two people came out. Hermione had not seen either of them during her stay here. Well then again, she hadn't seen anyone but Charles, Lucius Malfoy, and a few house elves. One was a tall and thin man and the other was a normal sized woman. She saw them look at the ground and mutter something. Then the man pointed up and Hermione silently cursed. They had figured out that she was missing.

She heard the two of them mutter something and then split up. Her heart pounding, she saw that this was her chance. They had left the door they came through open. Moving as silently as she could, she carefully crawled her way behind more plants and got closer to the door. The man had gone rather far but the woman was still close by.

Hermione was almost at the door. She just managed to slip inside when she heard a shout and footsteps. She immediately bolted down the corridor that she was in and cursing, told herself that if she ever got out of this, she would attend every single Auror training session with Harry and Ron. Come to think of it, where were Harry and Ron? Harry and Ginny should have been back from their honeymoon by now and Ron should have been back a long time ago from Romania where he was visiting Charlie.

She stopped in her tracks when she saw where the corridor ended. She was standing in a huge kitchen that was filled from top to bottom with millions of platters of food, dirty dishes, and house elves scurrying around. A part of her wanted to yell at them to all stop making food for she knew for a fact that the Duprés were not paying these poor creatures to make food but a shout behind her jolted her back to reality.

A quick glance back told her that those two people were still in hot pursuit of her. She needed to find a way out of this mad house. Fast.

Hermione took a deep breath and ran head on into the tall crowd of plates in front of her. She vaguely heard voices telling other people (not the elves thankfully) to catch her. She swerved past ten plates of spaghetti piled on top of each other when a short squat lady with a frying pan appeared in front of her. In a desperate attempt, she grabbed the thing nearest to her and swung it at the lady who swung the pan right back at Hermione. Luckily to Hermione's advantage, she had picked up a bag of open flour which landed right on the woman, who screamed and fell down, not expecting the flour.

A sound behind her caused her to duck as something flew past her head. She gazed at the object on the ground with an incredulous look. Someone had thrown a turkey at her head.

"You want to play dirty, do you?" she muttered murderously. "Two can play that game." Hermione grabbed an empty plate that was next to her and threw it in the direction that it came from. She heard a shriek and a crashing noise and smiled victoriously. "Ha!" She cried, "Take that!"

That was when something heavy flew into the side of her stomach. She almost screeched out loud when she saw that it was a massive lobster but she came to her sense and pulled it off her body. "Bloody lobster," she muttered and in a fit of rage, she threw it as hard as she could back at the man who had thrown it at her.

It was a known fact that Hermione had very good aim when it came to spells and simple things like that but when it came to things like massive lobsters about three feet long, her aim was well, not too good.

Hermione watched with wide eyes as the lobster continued its course towards a leaning tower of dirty plates that reached to the ceiling. All sound seemed to cease as well. Finally, the lobster rammed into the plates, breaking the ones that it crashed into and causing the remaining plates to fall. When she did not expect to happen was to cause a domino effect that would eventually break every single plate that was in the falling course of the plates.

The tower of plates groaned and crashed into the next tower of plates. Everyone around her began yelling and Hermione realized that this would be a good escape tactic. She began pushing over anything she could find hoping that she could cause an obstruction for the thin man and the woman were still following her.

Looking back very worried she started throwing food at them. That was when she heard the man yell, "DON"T LET HER GET TO THE DOOR!"

Hermione turned around and smirked as she saw the door looming just in front of her. She lunged for it but fell slightly short as a hand grabbed her ankle. She screamed and started kicking anything that was near her feet. She whacked her foot against a table and the hand immediately let go. But that was not before the whole table toppled over onto whoever had grabbed onto her. She turned around and saw the person covered with a now destroyed scrumptious looking chocolate cake. She stuck her finger into the cake and licking it right off. "Not bad," she muttered, yanking the door open as she saw the tall man and the woman still running towards her.

"Oh no," she whispered as she threw herself out of the door. She would get to the lunch guests if it was the last thing she did.

* * *

Draco conversed very lightly with his cousin after Ruin had returned. Much to Draco's dismay, Charles was really an alright person if you were not related to him. He was rather funny in an odd sort of way. Draco would never admit that to anyone though. It would stay locked up in a corner of his mind until the end of the universe. Draco would never tell anyone that he actually enjoyed talking with his cousin. Then again, they were not cousins at the moment. 

He also kept an eye on Renée and Ruin but much to his disappointment, all they did was talk to his aunt on and on about pointless things that made Draco want to fall asleep. It wasn't till about fifteen minutes later when things finally got interesting.

"So, do you play Quidditch?" asked Charles with interest.

Draco smirked and replied, "Do I play Quidditch?" He shot Charles an arrogant look and said, "What kind of a moron do you think I am? Of course I play Quidditch." He sniffed and said, '"I was the best on my school team."

"I played at school too. We creamed everyone," replied Charles grinning. Draco merely nodded at him, not wanting to tell him about how their Slytherin team won against everyone except the Gryffindors.

That was when they all heard a crash followed by the chandelier above them shaking slightly.

"What was that?" asked Renée, turning to her husband.

"Not sure." Ruin spared a glance at the door then back at his wife.

"It sounds like something expensive fell," remarked Draco casually. Andromeda glared at him as he shrugged nonchalantly.

"I bet it's that statue of Voldemort you have in your room, Mom," said Charles cheekily. Draco snorted and Charles grinned.

Renée's face grew red and she replied as calmly as she could, "I do not own a statue of the former Dark Lord."

"Call him Voldemort, Mom. What's he going to do? Come back from the grave and call you out of fashion?" Charles smirked at Draco who shook his head.

Another crashing sound came followed by a shriek. This time, Ruin got up from his seat and began walking towards the door. Renée stopped him though as she said, "I'm sure it's nothing big. One of the maids must have spilled something hot on herself in the kitchen. It's no use wasting a well cooked, rich meal on something as trivial as that." Ruin looked at her and slowly came back to his seat.

Draco almost gawked at the woman. She had no morals or values in life. His mother was a very artificial and braggart sort of woman when she wanted to be but this was just going way over the top.

Everything was quiet for a moment but then, the whole room shook as an insanely loud noise rumbled throughout the entire mansion. Ruin threw down his napkin and muttered, "What the hell is going on?"

He burst open the doors of the dining room with everyone else behind him and began walking across the entrance hall towards a corridor. The noise still echoing throughout the house, Draco wondered what was going on. A yelling noise brought his attention towards the corridor Ruin was walking towards and that was when his heart stopped for a moment. Hermione Granger flew out of the corridor, panting slightly. She looked up at them, her eyes lighting up.

Philostrate and the cook were very quick to follow as well. They both burst out behind Hermione covered in various sorts of food. Hermione's mouth formed an "O" as she tried to escape them but Philostrate was faster. He had somehow acquired a long piece of rope that he had begun tying around her while the woman tried to get her to stay still. She thrashed and screamed in front of the five others not really caring that they were watching.

Draco stood paralyzed unable to do anything. The woman he was searching for was right here yet if he tried to do something, he would be found out. He admired her struggle though it was obviously a futile attempt. The two of them had her wrapped up rather tightly and started carrying away. Just as he lost sight of her, he heard her yell, "GET DRACO MALFOY!"

Ruin paled slightly as Renée fanned herself, clutching onto Andromeda's arm. Charles and Draco both looked on with shocked expressions as they saw her being dragged away.

Renée let out a strangled sort of noise as Andromeda soothingly patted her arm.

"What did she say?" asked Andromeda. Ruin nervously shrugged though Draco could tell he was lying. "I take it that was the maid you were referring to earlier?" she asked.

Renée nodded and said, "This is just so humiliating. I never should have hired her in the first place!"

"It's all right, Renée. Some things just can't be helped," consoled the other witch.

"I admire you so much, Iris," said Renée bursting into tears. Andromeda looked towards Draco, a slight grin on her face. He returned it.

Charles nudged Draco and said, "She's pretty isn't she?"

"Who?"

"The err...maid."

Draco couldn't decide if he should agree with him or strangle him on the spot. Instead he decided to say, "She's a maid."

Charles grinned and said, "She's still a girl and I like girls."

Draco stared at him, itching to hex the smile off his face. "She's a maid."

Charles shrugged and said, "She's gorgeous." Draco nearly scowled but kept quiet. Charles looked at him and said, "Our house isn't always this exciting but I think you should come over another time as long as you're around. It gets rather boring around here."

"Don't you work?"

"Do you?"

"I'm on vacation," growled Draco.

"Me too," replied Charles cheekily, running his hand through his hair.

Draco shook his head and said, "Sure. Perhaps I'll just drop in one day. All I do is shop with her." He gestured toward his aunt, who standing with Renée and Ruin, listening to Renée fume about something.

"Great!" replied Charles, shaking Draco's hand. "Now if you'll excuse me, Earl, I have a damsel to woo." With that, Charles rushed off. Draco stared at Charles's back with a murderous look as the brunet bounded up the stairs.

Damsels to woo, what a loser.


	19. Chapter 18

I am so sorry for not updating faster. I thought that summer would be relaxing but I was very wrong. Anyways, this whole thing started out as a one shot but then I realized that it worked perfectly as the next chapter of this story so halfway through writing the one shot I began writing it for this and I actually like this chapter. The ending is kind of odd but I think that you'll live. Next chapter will be out next week for sure and thank you thank you very much for all the reviews. You guys made my day. Hope you all like this chapter and as always please read and review at the end!

By the way this first part might be a little confusing but it'll make sense eventually.

**Disclaimer- I do not own Harry Potter or any of its characters. They are all owned by J. K. Rowling but I do own those characters that you do not recognize.**

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Draco Malfoy was not having a very good day. He obviously did not know that he was going to be having a bad day as he woke up on the right side of the bed exactly the same way he had been doing for the past twenty two years of his life.

The moment he woke up, he felt extremely refreshed. He felt full of boundless energy and anyone who crossed his path was sure to be scared of the wide smirk that covered his face. But as he walked across his room towards the bathroom, his foot caught on the edge of a rug and he tumbled to the floor, his head smacking the ground. As he got off the floor, he rubbed his head and was mortified to find that he was bleeding. Horrified, he rushed into the bathroom to look in the mirror and sure enough, there was a tiny scratch along with a fresh bruise in the middle of his forehead. The scratch he could get rid of but not the bruise for sure. He scowled at his reflection as he proceeded to finish his morning pleasantries.

It was shortly after this that the second mishap occurred. As he got out of the shower, he reached towards the counter for a towel to wrap around himself. In doing so, he promptly slipped on the ground and landed flat on his bum. That hurt a lot.

Exactly twenty minutes later, Draco Malfoy stormed down the stairs of his manner into the dining room with an ugly scowl on his face. The bruise on his forehead was more pronounced now and seemed to be about the size of a galleon. He was walking very funnily as though he couldn't move his legs properly. He threw himself onto a chair at the table and yelped as waves of pain shot through his bum. Slamming his hand down on the table he yelled, "MOPSY! I want my breakfast!"

A house elf appeared to the side of Draco and snapping its fingers, a plate of hot eggs with strips of bacon appeared in front of him. A fork and knife appeared on one side of the plate while the Daily Prophet appeared on the other side. He grabbed the newspaper from the table and while opening it, reached for his fork. Unfortunately, he missed the fork and instead grabbed the scrambled eggs, which coincidentally happened to be scalding hot. He let out a very unmanly shriek and flung the eggs across the table as he nursed his tender hand.

The house elf, Mopsy, appeared mere seconds later and asked, "Is master alright?"

"Do I look alright?" he snapped staring down at his hand, which had an ugly red welt across it. When Mopsy cowered with fear, Draco scowled at it and snarled, "I'm fine." Without one word, he got up from the table and walked away muttering to himself that the world was out to get him today. He would have tried to fix the burn on his hand but he was never the one for healing spells or things of that sort. Besides if it left a scar, he could always make up a story about how he was attacked by a dragon and how he escaped with only a welt on his hand.

Scowling even more, he walked into his study and over to the fireplace. Unfortunately, he had to go to work today just like every other normal person. He could have lived rather comfortably off the fortune his parents had left him but it looked bad for his image. He didn't do anything very stressful in the least. He worked in the spells department. As silly as it sounded, it was a rather hard job. There were two parts to it. One part was filled with people who wrote the actual spells along with the explanation behind how it was supposed to work while the other department checked over all of the theory and actually performed the spell. Draco was in the latter. Throwing floo powder into the fireplace, he barely even flinched as green flames roared in his face. He muttered Ministry of Magic and disappeared.

Draco stepped out of the fireplace in a dignified manner rubbing nonexistent soot off his robes. His stomach growled a few seconds later reminding him how in his pain, he had completely forgotten to eat his breakfast. With an even more morbid scowl on his face he stalked over to the main desk of the Ministry of Magic, surrendering his wand over to the girl at the front so that she could register it in order to say that he had come in. It was a rather useless procedure in Draco's opinion. The girl nearly cried as he snatched it out of her hand a second after she had finished registering it. He didn't even hear when she started calling his name.

He opened a door at the far end of the ministry and took a set of stairs that was going down. It would take him at least ten minutes to get to his office as the ministry wanted all these new spells as heavily protected as possible until they could ensure that they would hurt no one. Ten minutes passed rather slowly and Draco cursed himself multiple times for ever wanting this job. As soon as he reached the door to his department, he saw a bright red paper on the front of the door. Peering at it, his scowl intensified even more. The office had been infested with rats so they had moved to another location on the sixth floor of the ministry until the problem had been resolved. Draco had been so caught up with this that he failed to notice that a rat was nibbling on his boots. He looked down and yelling loudly, kicked his foot out causing the rat to fly into a wall. It squeaked and ran away somewhere.

Draco kicked the door out of rage and quickly made his way to the sixth floor. He was going to be very late and his boss was not going to be happy.

Approximately fifteen minutes later, Draco made it to the sixth floor panting. He made a beeline straight for an empty desk and sat down on a chair cursing silently under his breath. Today was definitely not his day. He felt like murdering something. A thick stack of papers lay on the desk and just as he was about to look at them, a hefty looking woman stormed towards him and yelled, "MALFOY! WHERE ON EARTH HAVE YOU BEEN?"

Draco scowled at the woman and replied as calmly as he could, "No one informed me that the department had moved up here."

"That's not my problem is it?" she asked nastily sneering at him. Draco looked at her with a mildly disgusted look. She had a faint mustache above her upper lip and an abominable looking double chin and every time she spoke it would wobble back and forth reminding Draco of a turkey. He was shaken out of his reverie as the woman, who was his boss, yelled, "ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME, MALFOY?"

He nodded tearing his eyes away from her chin. "Good," she replied. Picking the papers off of the desk and shoving them into his hands, she said, "Your work for today. See to it that every last bit of it is finished. Only then will I let you go home." Draco watched with revulsion as she walked away. Looking down at the paper on top, he groaned out loud. He remembered what he was supposed to do today. Yesterday his boss had told him that he was to review a spell made by the one and only Hermione and Granger. He had completely forgotten about it until this very instant. And, to top that off, he was supposed to meet her for lunch to discuss it with her. He scowled and began rifling through the papers. Hopefully there was something wrong with the spell he thought nastily. That way he would be able to rub it in her face and make her cry. He was in desperate need of torturing someone and who better to torture than the know-it-all?"

Much to his dismay, he found nothing wrong with the spell, which made his day seem a lot worse than it already was. Obviously there was nothing wrong because she was Hermione Granger, the One-Who-Could-Do-No-Wrong. And secondly it was a rather elementary spell that she had created. It was plain to see that she had been asked to make this particular spell as Draco had been the one to proofread almost all of her spells. Most of the spells she created had to do with highly advanced magic such as bonding people together, highly effective protection spells, and things like that. But this one was the dumbest thing that he had ever seen. It was spell for growing strawberries on a wall. He could tell by the sharpness of her handwriting that she had not at all been very pleased to create something so juvenile and useless in Draco's opinion.

Sadly enough he would have to tell her that there was nothing wrong with the spell at all. It really did put a severe damper on his mood.

He looked up at the dingy looking clock that was hanging in the room and found that it was nearly 12 o'clock. Most of the other people he worked with were already gone for lunch. He grabbed his wand off the desk and stuffing Granger's notes into his robes began his walk down to the main floor of the ministry so that he could floo to Diagon Alley where he was supposed to meet her. One thing that he really liked about his job was that they gave out really long lunch breaks. Three and a half hours to be exact. The bad thing was that he was expected to be at work promptly at eight in the morning and was only allowed to leave after seven in the night.

Draco stepped towards the fireplace on the main floor of the ministry and throwing the floopowder into the fireplace, yelled, "Leaky Cauldron!" He stepped into the fireplace ignoring the thrilling sensation that he usually got every time he used the floo system. As he stepped out of the fireplace into the Leaky Cauldron, he saw a sudden motion through the corner of his eye. Without warning something catapulted into his stomach throwing him backwards onto his bum. He bit his tongue, not wanting to yell out in front of everyone. He tasted blood. He scowled angrily as he saw a small child push himself off of Draco's stomach. The child seemed oblivious to any damage he had done. As he shot past Draco, he bumped against a pitcher of butterbeer on the counter above Draco. Since Draco was in fact the unluckiest man alive, the pitcher fell onto his head, knocking him unconscious.

He woke up nearly half an hour later in a hard chair, feeling something cold being pressed to his forehead. A few seconds later, his forehead erupted in pain and giving out a spectacular yelp, fell out of the chair and onto the ground. Clutching his bottom, he whimpered as that too erupted in pain. He vaguely heard a sigh above him as a pair of arms carefully pulled him back onto the chair. "Malfoy, Malfoy, Malfoy."

He opened one eye only to see Hermione Granger peering at him with a pitiful expression on her face. She reached towards his forehead with something in her hand but he slapped her hand away before she got to him. Scowling at her he said, "Don't touch me."

She stared at him and replied with a faint smile on her face, "Your forehead's cut up though."

Draco scowled at her and said, "What's it to you?"

She frowned at him before leaning back in her chair. Hermione surveyed him for about ten seconds before she said, "Are you alright?"

"Do I look like I'm alright?"

"No," she stated simply.

"Ten points to Gryffindor!" replied Draco in an obnoxiously loud voice. He touched his forehead and winced. It wasn't bleeding for one thing but it hurt like hell.

"I would thank you but seeing as we're not in school anymore, it doesn't do me any good." She smiled brightly at him, showing him her uncannily straight and white teeth.

Draco stared at her not sure what to say in reply to that comment. Finally he said, "Are you alright, Granger?" Just to be rude he added, "I've always questioned your sanity but really, I think there is something wrong with you now."

She beamed at him and replied, "I am feeling fantastic today, Malfoy."

"Joy," he muttered, rolling his eyes at her.

"Would you like to hear why?"

"No."

"Well, I got up this morning to a phone call from my friend who lives in Greece. It turns out that she's pregnant and she wants me to be the godmother to her child!"

"Perhaps I should recommend your friend to a doctor I know. She must have lost her mind in deciding to name you the godmother of her child."

Hermione ignored him and said, "Then after that, I got a call from my mother who said that she found out that she has a half sister. I felt so happy for my mother." Hermione smiled even wider and said, "I have three more cousins now."

"I suppose that they are all horrible and ugly looking just like you," he spat.

"That's not all," replied Hermione with an elated look in her eyes. "I was promoted this morning."

Draco sat up ignoring the pain in his bum and asked, "To what?"

"Well, they call it a promotion but it really only gives me license to work on more complicated spells."

"Well that's fine and dandy," he snapped. As he looked at her face he noted to himself that she was glowing. "It seems as though my luck has been switched with yours for some odd reason." He threw her a nasty scowl.

She completely ignored him and replied, "Oh no, that's not possible. You see, on normal days I never have pitchers of butterbeer fall on my head or have little kids run into me. I'm never that clumsy. Sure I drop books on my foot once in a while but that's about it."

Draco stared at her, perplexed to no end by her odd behavior until he finally came to a conclusion. "Did Weasley proclaim his undying love for you?"

"Better he-" she cut off and stared at him, her cheeks growing slightly red. "That's none of your business, Malfoy!"

He sniffed at her and pulling her spell papers out of his robe threw them on the table. "Your spell."

She looked at the papers with a mildly bored expression and said, "Oh...the strawberry one."

"No errors at all but next time I suggest you choose something different to make a spell on."

"I didn't choose it," she replied thrusting the papers back at him. "My boss did. And I'm fairly certain that it was a spell that she was planning to use for herself." It was no secret that Hermione's boss loved strawberries. He brought strawberry juice to work, had strawberry ornaments all over his office, had a strawberry garden at his home, and even called his child strawberry. She coughed slightly and said, "It works though?"

"Do you really need to ask that?"

"I just wanted to hear you say it."

Draco scowled and replied, "You think you're so smart, eh?"

She smiled sweetly at him and stuck out her hand. "Once again Malfoy, thanks for the wonderful work." He took her hand in his and lightly shook it before dropping it. He stared at her as she flashed him a smile and exited the pub to Diagon Alley. She had thanked him for his wonderful work. Merlin, she was completely bonkers.

Draco looked down at his wrist to check the time. It was barely even one o'clock. He still had over two hours to kill. His grumbling stomach alerted him that he hadn't eaten anything since dinner the night before. So he made his way into Diagon Alley. As soon as he got tot he brick wall that led to Diagon Alley, he suddenly could not remember which bricks to tap. He could have asked someone in the pub which bricks to tap but he was already feeling overly humiliated so he was forced to wait until someone came through the wall for him to go.

Once in Diagon Alley, he settled himself at a cafe that was right next to Eeylops Owl Emporium. He began to wonder after a while if it really was wise to eat at a place so close to an owl shop. He got his answer a few seconds later when an owl flying overhead chose to relieve itself right onto his head.

Draco had a calm expression on his face as the people around him burst into laughter. He grabbed a napkin from the table and proceeded to wipe it off his head, trying to stay as cool as he possibly could. That was when he realized that there was something wrong with this whole situation.

He was not twenty two years old for one thing. Despite any inner desires he had to be younger, he definitely knew that he was not twenty two. He looked down at the napkin with the owl poop on it and watched with a frown as it disappeared. He threw the napkin onto the table and watched as the table faded away.

Draco knew for a fact that he did not work for any spell inventing department of the ministry. He was an Auror, which was a much more respectable job that reading over spells. He also knew that Hermione Granger would never have created a spell to make strawberries grow on walls. She hated strawberries.

Hermione Granger was not going out with Weasley either.

He also knew that no matter how bad a day could get, his day could never get as bad as he had dreamt it. He was never the recipient of so much bad luck. Perhaps a bad hair day here and there but apart from that, nothing else.

And he knew that he definitely did not have a house elf named Mopsy.

Diagon Alley started blurring in front of his very eyes until Draco could see nothing but the color grey. He blinked and realized what had happened. He was having one of those fully conscious dreams again. He hadn't had one in a while. In fact he had almost forgotten about them until now. The last time he had dreamt, he had seen Hermione and he had...kissed her. Draco felt warmth spreading throughout his body as he thought about her. She was as kind in dreams as she was in real life.

He blinked suddenly and found himself in an ice cream shop staring at the back of a head with very bushy hair. It was a little girl who barely came up to his waist. Draco looked around and raised an eyebrow. Shelves upon shelves were stacked with cartons of ice cream of different size, shape, and color. As he continued looking around trying to figure out what he was doing here, he felt a tug on the hem of his robes. He looked down and saw the little girl looking up at him with wide brown eyes.

"Excuse me sir, could you get me that green carton up there?" she asked in a high voice. Draco looked where she was pointing and sighed. It was one of the cartons all the way at the top of the shelf. Knowing that this was a dream and that he could do anything in dreams, he lifted his hand towards the carton and smirked as it shot off the shelf and into his out stretched hand. He handed it to the little girl and managed to give her a weak sort of half smile.

Just as he turned around, he felt something cold smack the back of his head. Draco slowly turned around, eyes narrowed and a scowl on his face. The little girl was staring at him with an unseemly wicked smile plastered onto her face, her frizzy hair sticking up. He couldn't believe that a mere child like this girl would ever do something as vile as what she had just done. That was when he saw a slight glint in her brown eyes and he knew that she was going to throw more at him. He ducked just in time.

Cartons of ice cream flew off the shelves to her side as scoops of ice cream threw themselves at Draco without any of her help. She laughed as a glob of ice cream smashed into his nose. Draco felt his heart stop right there. He knew that laugh. Even if it was a child's laugh he knew whose laugh it was.

"Granger?" He asked tentatively, watching as her eyes narrowed at him. "...Hermione?"

He watched as the child began to grow from a child of about four to a girl about twelve years old. "Do I know you?" she asked with a slightly nasty edge to her voice.

Draco stared at her for he had never heard her use a tone like that when they were younger. "Yes, you do."

She looked at him with a calculating look in her eyes. "You look kind of like this one nasty boy at my school."

Draco nearly scowled at her but said, "Draco Malfoy?"

Her eyes widened as she heard his name. "I..." She suddenly began to grow again. This time she seemed to be in her early twenties. She squinted at him and asked, "Malfoy?" He nodded. "You look so...old."

Draco scowled at her this time and snapped, "I'm not old you bint, I'm..." He trailed off and shook his head. He didn't want to argue with her right now. Walking up to her, he grabbed a hold of her shoulders and shaking her slightly said, "Granger, it's me, Draco. I need you here right now." He looked into her eyes and when he saw nothing familiar in them, he took a chance as slowly placed his lips on top of hers.

Nothing happened for the first second or two but after that, he felt her lips grow warmer. Pulling away, he let go of her arms and watched as her face grew sharper and her hair grew tamer. He reached towards her but pulled away at the last second.

She watched him, holding her breath. "Draco?" she asked timidly. He nodded, a smirk forming on his face as he took a step towards her. She stepped away from him with an unreadable expression on her face. "How do I know that this isn't a dream...that-that I'm not just making this up?"

Draco gave her a half smile and said, "You're staying at Charles's house, aren't you?" She nodded. "They had some British guests over for lunch and you escaped from wherever you were and gave them a message to find me."

She looked at him doubtfully and replied, "I know all this already, Draco."

He immediately took her face in his hands and pressed his lips to hers in a heart stopping kiss that left her breathless. When he pulled away, he smirked softly and asked, "Was that real enough for you?"

"I suppose so." She looked straight into Draco eyes marveling at how pretty they were, for a lack of a better word. She knew his eyes if nothing else. Even if she had despised him before, his eyes were always pleasing to look at. She knew without a doubt now that this was real for when she dreamt his eyes had always been just a plain grey that did him no justice at all.

Draco rubbed his thumb across her cheek and smirking, asked softly, "Just one question. How did you find your way around that place if you can't see a thing?"

Hermione stared at him with a frown on her face. "I-I'm not blind anymore, Draco." His jaw dropped slightly and she said, "Your father cured me."

"Don't call him that," he snapped. "He is no father of mine."

"I know," she replied softly, touching his face. They stared at each other perfectly content with where they were for once in their lives. Even if it was in dreamland, it was heaven.

"I still don't know what he wants with me."

"You're still in the library?"

She nodded. "The window is now barricaded by magic resistant metal," she said sourly.

"For what?" he asked bewildered.

"Well, I'm guessing that it was my accidental magic that shattered it in the first place then I jumped out of the window and escaped using a spell I learned from one of the books."

Draco snorted and said, "Once a Gryffindor, always a Gryffindor."

Hermione punched his arm and said, "The strange thing is that he-your father- wasn't angry at all. In fact he told me that he wanted me to learn more things."

Draco frowned and asked, "He hasn't done anything...funny to you?"

"No. Nothing except forcing me to eat when I wasn't hungry but that's all."

He looked at her with a puzzled look on his face and finally said, "I think he wants you to find something for him."

"That's wonderful except for the fact that he didn't tell me what I was supposed to be looking for." Hermione sighed and said, "I just want all of this to be over, Draco."

He rolled his eyes and replied, "So do I." He frowned and asked, "By the way, where are Potter and Weasley?"

She bit her lips and said, "No idea. They should have been back by now. Perhaps they decided to prolong their trips." Sighing, she looked Draco in the eyes and asked, "What now?"

He gazed at her steadily and shrugged. "I don't even know what he wants with us."

"He wants to hurt you, for one thing," Hermione said quietly. "Perhaps he views your fighting for the Light side during the war as betrayal of some sort." She placed a hand on his cheek and said, "He knows you very well Draco. He knows that with me gone you are hurting."

He looked down at her with cold eyes and said, "This isn't fair. Nothing us ever fair any more." Draco took her hand and said, "Mother, my aunt, and I, we'll figure out a way for you to escape from there. Stay alert for anything that comes your way, will you?"

She nodded and asked, "Are you leaving now?"

He shrugged and replied, "I don't know...I don't want to if that says anything."

Hermione smiled widely at him and said, "You're too kind." She pressed her lips to his then pulling away and asked, "How are you doing this?"

"What?"

"Finding me in your dreams."

Draco's grey eyes darkened as he replied, "I haven't the faintest idea. My aunt doesn't believe me though."

Hermione raised an eyebrow. Draco could already see the gears turning in her head as she tried to figure it out. "Have you tried it on her or your mother?"

Draco gave her an odd look and said, "No. I never thought about that."

"Try reaching out to them." Hermione patted his cheek and said, "I'll try and find out as much information about it as I can. After all, I am living in a library."

Draco nodded as she pulled away from him. "When should I try to reach you?"

Hermione rolled her eyes and replied, "At the manor, they have an unbelievably stupid rule. Every single light in the house goes off at nine o'clock and everyone must be up by six. Any time between then should be fine."

When he saw a bitter gaze come across her face he asked, "What?"

"Nothing."

"Tell me."

Her cheeks grew slightly red. "At nine o'clock my body gets stuck to the bed and I cannot get out of it until six the next morning." Draco started laughing only stopping when she cuffed the side of his head. She sniffed at him and said, "Now, since you obviously have some work to do, would you mind transporting me back to erm..."

"Your own dream world?" he asked.

"Yes. I'd prefer some place exotic if you could manage it."

Draco turned to her with a smirk on his face and kissing her on the tip of her nose said, "Exotic it is."


End file.
